Well, following your logic that nothing officially has been published you can also not assume this:
because this has only be stated in this (community) forum topic.
So I would suggest for your own sake that you either ignore everything said from FP members here in the thread or consider everything said by them and not pick which statement you believe and which not 
Hello Fairphone-Team,
I’m full of respect for your work -chapeau! Still wishfully waiting for my phone, -but it’s ok, I ordered in November.
But anyway, did I really understood correctly, that you don’t give us the choice to root -or not to root our 5.1-FP2 ??? It’s hard to believe!!!, it’s not like you, doesn’t fit to your company philosophy!!! -I slept two nights over it, -to cool a bit down… 
-but it still feels like stomach pains… 
I know, you are working on Open Source OS, and maybe there come also an Firefox-OS and others… -but when???
…PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE give us an official way/possibility to root our 5.1-FP2!!! PLEASE-PLEASE-PLEASE…
With kindly regards,
Ahne
PS: I know, to root the phone brings a lot of risk, -and a rooted phone is anyway far away from “googlefree” and to root is not a panacea. On contrary, a rooted phone is (can be) more unprotected and unsafe… , -BUT IT’S FREEDOM!!!
No, you did not understand that correctly.
No, you have the choice to root. There will be no official tools for the pre-installed Os with Google Apps due to security, but also legal reasons. You have two alternatives: 1) Follow one of the guides from users that successfuly installed super user on their FP2 already. 2) Install the Fairphone open source OS build coming soon and officially from Fairphone that will either include super user (root) or easy ways to install it.
So, enjoy your Freedom! 
I spoke with some of the porters working on the FP2, and they’re still using the stock recovery.
I mentioned that a custom recovery was something that the FP community wanted in case someone wanted to help out.
This looks pretty promising. All you need is a virtual machine with Unix and the OTA image. I have not tested it myself, but people in the thread are happy. Also there is no need to download the full source code. I think he will update the wiki soon, maybe he will even include how to do this with win/os x, docker could help.
https://forum.fairphone.com/t/pencil2-howto-root-with-superuser/12375?source_topic_id=11893Thank a lot for this meaningful post, I completely agree with all you said.
To be even more synthetic:
Lots of people are still unhappy, but in my opinion, it is the best possible solution.
We have the choice:
Hi,
it’s my first post in this forum so I start with a introduction as FP asked for.
Hi, I am always looking for alternative and open-source solutions. So I came to Fairphone. I was amazed by the idea “if you can’t open it, you don’t own it”. After I heard that for the first time I finally knew what I was annoyed about in common phones. I ordered mine but actually I am questioning myself if I really want that phone. The openness was the key-reason for my purchase.
And now I am reading that it was not planned to give us the freedome and the opportunity to do what we want to do with the phone. In fact, we don’t own it. It’s a violation of the whole Fairphone-ideology. I am shocked.
I never expected Fairphone to be that cowardly. A decision just because it’s practical and not considering that anyone might believe in the dream of fair and open electronics is just careless.
I was always amazed about the communication and community work of Fairphone. But I can’t believe that you did not tell a word about it.
I won’t cancel my purchase because I still believe in Fairphone and its ideology. But I very hope that Fairphone will fix this disappointment.
Keep working!
Cheers
PS: When I wrote this I just heard about this matter for the first time so I was really disappointed. I just want to point out that I really love the Fairphone company and the community. I am incredibly strongly appreciating Fairphone’s work and their efforts for a fairer world and a great user experience. I was so amazed when I found this piece of idealism which is implemented even though it’s incredibly hard. So all in all, even though I am a bit disappointed right now, I just want to say: Thank you for realizing this amazing dream!
Hold your horses 
They clearly communicated (even before the shipping) that their phones will come with GApps preinstalled. If you ship a phone with GApps preinstalled, you are not allowed to make it rootable. That would violate Google’s terms of services.
For most of the customers, that is the better solution than to root the phone by default. First of all because probably >95% of the users want to use the play store, and also because rooting can cause serious security problems if the user doesn’t know exactly what he/she is doing. Rooting circumvents the entire security model of an Android phone. Furthermore, a lot of online banking apps won’t work if the phone is rooted.
But because Fairphone does care about things like ownership and access, they are actively working on releasing the FairphoneOS separately without the GApps, ready to root. Right now you can build and install AOSP yourself (http://code.fairphone.com/), but there will be a full official howto soon.
I think it’s good that they concentrated on actually shipping out the hardware. There have been enough delays already. The phones shouldn’t have been delayed because the second ROM wasn’t ready yet. If you’re serious about owning the firmware, you should probably build it yourself. Then you can control all aspects of it.
@dbrgn Thanks for your reply. Yes, I should hold my horses. I just realized that I was a bit harsh. I added a PS as you may be able to read now.
As I wrote, I believe in Fairphone so I am sure they’ll fix that. I also think that shipment is the most important issue right now. Thanks for your summary about all those matters. I somehow got the information that it will be challenging to have a root and that there won’t be anything like an instruction.
So, I’ll be patiently waiting for finally getting my phone and then I’ll see what I am able to do.
So sorry for being that straight forward.
Cheers!
The community already provided a “how to root”, so rooting the stock ROM is easily possible as well: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/pencil2-howto-root-with-superuser/12375
@freibadschwimmer great to hear. I might do it that way. But I would feel better with a offcial solution if possible.
I don’t think that there will be an official way to root the stock ROM. However, with waiting for an official build of the FP-osos you’re not alone.
Also: Firefox OS is already in beta phase and available for testing, and also Sailfish OS is expected to be released soon. So lots of alternatives to the stock ROM that’s exciting to look forward to 
Especially Sailfish OS is very inetersting for me. Very exiting 
I just feel so good to find a community which is not just using a phone but which is considering all causes and opportunities a phone and its software might have!
The only disappointment I’ve had so far with my FP2 is that there’s no possibility of handling apps’ permissions (like Cyanogen does). I come from a rooted S3, running CyanogenMod, and most of all I need to be able to control my data, and what my apps do and don’t do. I am surprised to FP2 default OS does not have this feature, which to me is extremely basic.
Is there any reason why FP2 doesn’t come with it?
I have just received my new FP2. I am not yet using it because I’m concerned about my privacy. So I looked to XPrivacy as a means of gaining that control over data and apps, and that’s mainly why I need to root my phone. Personally, I think FP made a good choice not rooting the phone by default (OK for most people), and in parallel providing an alternative (when it happens) the gives users more freedom and control.
That said, I am not very happy having to break the safety model to gain a feature I think every user should have (permission control).
So my question is: Will FP updates will come with Permission Control features?
Basically i agree with you, i also perceive a proper permission management important, but the stock ROM is based on Android 5 which does not have one included. This only comes with Android 6, which is why i hope it won’t take too long until it will be available for FP2.
So far xprivacy seems to be the way to go, but it is unfortunately also tricky to install it, so be careful. Installing the xprivacy installer alone won’t help. For more see here: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/flashing-xposed-framework-to-the-fp2-without-custom-recovery/12642
As I remember from @keesj’s talk on FOSDEM, right now they have no concrete plans to offer Android 6 for the FP2 but rather Focus on getting FP-OSOS up and running and support it along with the current stock rom. He said there might be an option to upgrade to a higher version of Android in the future, but it didn’t sound like it would come in the next few months…
To my knowledge there even isn’t an ETA on the FPOSOS but a vaguely “first quarter”. Besides that, a gapps free version is one thing… an officially supported recovery image is another. 
Hello
Same for me. I’m not a pro at all with phones, but I don’t want gapps to scan all my contact and stuff. I was trying to install Xprivacy when I discover it wasn"t root like the FP1 and I’m really disapointing. So I search for a solution and come to this thread… I hope FP didn’t sale his soul to google. It’s very sad. I hope guys will find a way to root it as for now I didn’t install any app cause I don’t want to sell my privacy. So I can phone with it… but I was abble to do it with a simple phone.
As a lot of people, I defend a lot FP and talk about it to a lot of people, some bought on (like my son), but with that, I really start to reverse my opinion… ok for the making but for the ‘philosophie’ after, there’s a lot to prove.
I was like you and didn’t install any of the messenger, because I didn’t want to give all thos companies all my data. Luckily I only had to wait for about 5 days after my FP2 arrived to get root. By now we even made a wiki article with detailed instructions here: https://forum.fairphone.com/t/pencil2-howto-root-with-superuser/12375
Just follow the B) variant and you’ll have a rooted FP2 in about 15 minutes 