Root

At first I didn't really see much advantage to rooting my phone - it turns out there are two.

The first is Titanium Backup, which allows for easy restoration of settings after a ROM update. Will be using that in the future.

The second is wifi tethering. Had moderate success with Barnacle, but I will be using Wifi Tether.

Unfortunately Ubuntu has poor support of ad hoc wireless networks, so wifi tethering may not work so well. In this case, I will keep EasyTether around. (The purchased apps now show up properly in the Market.)