[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] KnowledgeBroker:
If you look up supercharger script here on XDA you can see some of the settings that every google operating system uses. Stock gingerbread has more processes that effect memory management than 2.2 or earlier, but these settings can be set by each rom designer.. and the settings have an effect on battery life AND performance. No, the script does not act like an auto-task killer which doesn't make things better because the task will auto-restart, the scripts DEFINE the threshold that a process is allowed to take up the memory. I know that much to be relatively factual, although I am not sure which settings make the best battery versus performance.. I would think that varies by device and amount of memory.

I will say this, devices with limited ram will have different processes competing for "background" ram usage. If one background process kills another to get that memory, than the original process does the same.. that would take battery life, no? This is based on logic, not sure how true it is.. but if you know feel free to correct me.

This post is not a waste if at least one person has found it helpful, so I am glad.. mission accomplished. Personally I haven't seen any apps I am using listed, but I don't think I will install any listed if they are obviously causing people problems..

Accidently sent eh? Lol. I looked up autostarts, and it's description seems vague enough that I am not sure if it acts like an auto-taskkiller or if it keeps programs from starting up the first and subsequent times.. apps that don't need to load at all should use less battery, but if it kills an app that will restart over and over again.. I guess if you or someone else could verify if these apps NEVER start?

I have several apps I rarely use that like to run as a background service, supposedly they don't use any processor to be in the background so I don't uninstall them.. but I also don't need them to load at all considering I rarely use them!

I posted about go launcher ex in my OP. I was using adw ex originally, and used that across MANY roms.. and it wasn't until I tried go launcher ex that I noticed significant battery drain. I am not sure it was the launcher.. but now that I am using a Miui rom(and its launcher) I once again have less battery drain. I tested go launcher ex once more and saw a noticeable difference, but couldn't be sure it was the launcher. The other go apps(sms, widgets, etc) all seem to have higher than normal drain too, but just like the launcher, I am not absolutely sure that those apps are specifically at fault.

I believe that go sms pro uses less battery for texts than handcent does(there is a considerable difference in processor usage in system panel monitor), but I am not sure versus the stock sms app(I always hated stock texts). Recently since some update of Beautiful widgets I have noticed it being at the top of processor usage, when before it would be at the bottom. Even when I am not using the widget at all it is on the list, but if I freeze it or uninstall it, it seems to contribute to at least slightly better battery life.

I guess I am most interested in which apps SIGNIFICANTLY reduced battery life. I don't care if it is a wifi scanner, yahoo mail, or something else, if an app you had installed reduced your phones life by a significant amount of time, it should be shared here to keep others from making the same mistake.

I know that apps that take the device state(physical position of the device or whatnot used by apps like tasker) versus ones that constantly poll the device will make a huge difference. If an app keeps your device from entering deep sleep it makes a huge difference. Push notifications can make a huge difference, but again, I think that has to do with how often it polls..

Again, if someone can correct me if I am wrong, please feel free to do so!