So what exactly is 'Rooting'?

rooting is very similar to Jailbreaking.  It basically gives you the same access to the phone as the original programmers have.  You can do a lot of cool stuff with a rooted phone, but one of the best things is getting rid of AT&T's bloat ware.  There are also some pretty cool apps out there that require a rooted phone.  It is a little hard to do and you do risk bricking your phone, but if you want to do serious customization of your phone you should probably consider doing it.

AT&T blocks all downloads outside the Android market.  This sucks because there are some good apps out there that poeple have come up with that aren't on the market.  You can get around this by saving the APK to your computer then transfering it over to your phone via USB.  Or with your rooted phone you can follow some procedures found on XDA developers website to turn the lockout off.  That is what I did, and it works great. 

Yep, you can still use the marketplace.  Over on XDA's site there is a link for a one click root that people have said works pretty good.  When you do it you might want to give it a try.  Also Rooting alone wont give you access to download outside the marketplace.  You will have to follow some procedures to turn the block off after you are rooted. 

Had to put put my two cents in...
                                                               Bloop

You cannot brick a Captivate, period.
If your ever in trouble, install Odin from xda (search)
This will also take you to stock for flashing roms.

                                                                Bloop

Also, an easy "around" for the market
Activate airplane mode (hold screen lock button)
Turn on Wi-Fi (yes you have to be in a hotspots)
This "unlocks" the market
While your there, look for "market access"
This program will allow you to use market off of at&t
and not need wi-fi

Amen, MommehK. The Captivate is definitely brickable, only less so than most other rootable/flashable/hackable phones (the Incite was just a little easier to flash).

Odin is a great little tool, but I have semi-bricked my Captivate with it. Had to rescue it using adb shell, etc. I have also used the power/volume+/volume- button method, but it was somewhat iffy.

I would recommend strongly that if you want to root/flash you Captivate, scour the Net particularly xda, modaco, and samsung firmwarez and read up a lot; side benefit you may understand how others successfully(!) bricked their phone and what they were tring to do when they did it. And be very careful - go slow...

Hey chaos, just got to thinking that "bricking" the Captivate may be somewhat relative to where you are on the tech ladder. When I bricked mine, I was lucky that I have an ubuntu box (actualy my mail server), knew some linux/unix, and the phone's bootloader was still functional. I could have done what I did there on my Windows 7 x64 latptop, too.

For a tech n00b who finds himself in the situation I was in, that phone was bricked for all intents and purposes if he/she does not have the knowhow and resources to get out of it.

So, for the person who just got the Captivate 3 days ago and had the guts to root/flash it, rendering the phone totally unfunctional and unrecoverable is a distinct possibility. For that person, the phone is bricked.

On the other hand, if one understands how to do it and have access to the right resources, I agree with you that the Captivate is damn close to unbrickable. Cheers!

i agree, not knowing what to do or where to go could cause you to "brick" your phone. but i always read everything before deciding to screw my stuff up, i would suggest the same for anyone else. DON'T FLASH YOUR PHONE UNLESS YOU KNOW HOW TO BACK IT UP, RECOVER IT.

call it what you like,
but a brick to me is something i throw
in the trash. i can't brick my phone,
i guess you guys can do what you want with yours...