[Samsung Mesmerize] ChromWolf:
First off, hey all! My first ever post to the forums. I figured it'd be big enough I should skip using the XDA app for now, but I did get it, and it's neato. :)

I'm using a brand new Samsung Mesmerize, unrooted, stock Eclair 2.1-update1. I considered grabbing the Froyo leak, but the whispers I'm picking up are the USCC is releasing it either this month or next, or at the very least, "soon".

I've got a lot of questions that are loosely tied together, but I didn't really find any answers to my questions specifically on the forums. For the most part, I get *how* to actually do the procedures I'm mentioning thanks to the AWESOME newb guides on this forum, so these are more conceptual or clarification questions I guess.

1. Rooting. Should I really be worried by it? I know it's really easy with the one-click root apps out there, but I'm more concerned with that whole "warranty voiding" part. Should I really be the concerned by it if I'm not comfortable with it, or is it not that big a deal as long as I'm careful with my phone and don't do anything that would actually require warranty work (cracking the screen, etc.)?

2. Is Voodoo the only real "viable" or "best" lagfix, or are there others? Although I'm a Windows guy in the IT field, I more or less grasp the Ext4 filesystem Voodoo uses, and stock Mesmerize does not. Is that fact what makes Voodoo the aforementioned "only viable" lagfix out there, if that's the case?

3. In spite of the ease of rooting from z4root (if I have the name right), I'm hoping to avoid rooting for as long as possible (though, see question 1). If there are other viable fixes out there, will I need to root the phone to use them?

4. If I do end up going with Voodoo, I see that it doesn't require rooting, which is cool. Does having a custom kernel itself technically void the warranty however, or just rooting? .....am I too worried about rooting and it's not actually that big a deal warranty-wise?

5. If using Voodoo, can I select which of the Voodoo fixes I want to use? I'm really only after the lagfix, and I *think* I like my colors just fine (that said, I'm not necessarily opposed to going with any color fixes if I just don't know what I'm missing)

6. I've also picked up that I can maybe do something about my battery life, and that there are other speed increases/battery utilities people are using; I came across this thread while searching for lagfix answers, and saw the poster is using "SGS tools". Is that something I should also look into?

7. I've noticed that some ROMs don't have all apps/hardware working just yet. Is that something I'd need to worry about with loading just a custom kernel like Voodoo? The Voodoo Documentation page seems to mention Kies won't work in Ext4 mode, but that's all I see affected an unrooted, otherwise-stock unit. How badly will I really miss Kies if at all? ...or, what does disabling lagfix (the suggested solution if you want to use Kies) actually do to the filesystem?

I think that's all for now---sorry for the rapid barrage of questions, but hopefully this will tell me if I need to worry about rooting, and if Voodoo is the way for me to go, and if I need anything else and I'm just not aware of it yet. :) Thanks for helping out a new guy, all!