Removing some code from themes

At first I would like to say that I’m a completly PHP newbbie.

In the default theme and in many others as well, there is some common code.
In the SINGLE.PHP I’ve removed some code to clean up the single page a little bit and I’m not really sure if that code is important and if I should keep it instead.

The following code seems to display a box with some information.
You experienced WordPress users can tell me if I should keep the following code for any important reason I’m overlooking ?
My feeling is that I don’t really need that box, but I see that box on most blogs.

———-
<p class="postmetadata alt">
<small>
This entry was posted
<?php /* This is commented, because it requires a little adjusting sometimes.
You'll need to download this plugin, and follow the instructions:
http://binarybonsai.com/archives/2004/08/17/time-since-plugin/ */
/* $entry_datetime = abs(strtotime($post->post_date) - (60*120)); echo time_since($entry_datetime); echo ' ago'; */ ?>
on <?php the_time('l, F jS, Y') ?> at <?php the_time() ?>
and is filed under <?php the_category(', ') ?>.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the <?php comments_rss_link('RSS 2.0'); ?> feed.

<?php if (('open' == $post-> comment_status) && ('open' == $post->ping_status)) {
// Both Comments and Pings are open ?>
You can <a href="#respond">leave a response</a>, or <a href="<?php trackback_url(true); ?>" rel="trackback">trackback</a> from your own site.

<?php } elseif (!('open' == $post-> comment_status) && ('open' == $post->ping_status)) {
// Only Pings are Open ?>
Responses are currently closed, but you can <a href="<?php trackback_url(true); ?> " rel="trackback">trackback</a> from your own site.

<?php } elseif (('open' == $post-> comment_status) && !('open' == $post->ping_status)) {
// Comments are open, Pings are not ?>
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

<?php } elseif (!('open' == $post-> comment_status) && !('open' == $post->ping_status)) {
// Neither Comments, nor Pings are open ?>
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

<?php } edit_post_link('Edit this entry.','',''); ?>

</small>

Thanks again.