-I didn’t do much to backup my phone beyond copying a couple files off the SD card before I flashed it, just in case – I try to keep the phone as disposable as possible in case I lose/drop it. I know Titanium Backup is popular for this use case, but I’ve never tried it.

-I needed to manually reinstall my apps, but since most of my data “lives” off the phone, a few passwords got me back where I was before. Except icon placement – that was obviously gone.

-CyanogenMod gives me Froyo instead of Eclair, no more HTC Sense (not a fan myself, although I know others are), better performance, newer (better) Google apps, no more dialer lag. Downsides seem to be poorer battery life, possible stability issues (I’ve had to reset the phone twice) and a poorer soft keyboard.

I’ve considered doing this, but haven’t tried quite yet. I’m curious about a few things:

. what did you do to backup your phone before flashing a new rom?
. how much of your old configuration were you able to easily recover after installing cyanogen (account info, app installation & configuration, launcher icons placement, etc)?
. what does cyanogenmod give you over your stock rom?