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→Configuring your system
If you don't do that you'll still be able to use your device, but you'll need to use it as the root user instead.
= Rooting and unlocking =
This is a complex topic that we don't need to dig into because you don't need a rooted or unlocked device to do development on it. But it's important for you to know what these terms mean:
* Unlocking the phone usually means unlocking it from a specific service provider. When you buy a phone from a telecom (perhaps at a discount) that phone will only work on that provider's network (it's locked to it). You can pay for a code that will unlock the device from that network and then use it with other providers.
* An unrelated thing you can unlock is the boot loader. Devices have a locked boot loader by default which means you will be unable to boot an alternate operating system or make any changes to the system image. This is accomplished with public key cryptography. The process for unlocking the boot loader is different for every device.
* A rooted phone has the "su" command, which will let you run commands as root on the phone. You need to unlock the boot loader before you can root a phone. A rooted phone is great for development if you do more system-level programming rather than just writing apps.