Android Rooted?

[JulianM]

Hi Tommy_2Tall,

I'll try to answer all your questions as good as I can.

Maybe I've misunderstood something but will we be able to use Google Play Store, Netflix, Spotify, (other "DRM sensitive" apps) with a rooted device?

You will be able to use the most of the apps from Play Store.
Sure, there exist a few apps which will not work, if your device is rooted, but you can use the Xposed framework with "RootCloak".
RootCloak will hide "root" for specific apps.
- RootCloak (with 5.x and 6.x support) | Xposed Module Repository
I don't know how to install Xposed at the moment on the Pine 64, because I don't have a board yet.

The Google Play Store itself is really absolutely no problem with root.
Netflix is also no problem on a rooted device.

I was under the impression that a lot of apps from the Play Store will not run properly if you have a rooted device.

I can absolutely deny that.

It could be that the rooted devices that I've used in the past have been cheap noname tablets with limited support for Google Play and maybe those were not on some sort of "allowed/supported devices" list?

That COULD be the reason, but there is a solution
The magic is inside the file "build.prop".
This files contains all relevant device information for Google Play Store.
It contains the model, display size, dpi, and so on.

There are some tutorials how to get your device compatible with the most apps.

So my main concern is probably wether there would  be a benefit to have an image which is NOT rooted in certain circumstances or if rooted is "always better"?

What do you expect from a "rooted" device?
What do you want to do with root?
It's useless to say "I want root!", but you don't know what to do with it.
So, please tell me more about your plans and I'll help you as good as possible.


Best regards
Julian