[Desire Android Development] sudkcoce:
Thanks for your reply, zumnao!

I found the following on the net and I am posting here if someone is in the same boat as I am:

Safe to remove apks from Sense Roms

So, before flashing a Sense Rom (InsertCoin or other) you can remove a few apks from the rom's zip if you don't need them. Save time when flashing and also on 1st boot. I will provide a list of apks that are safe to remove. You just delete the files from rom.zip/system/app

Or you can delete them after flashing if you already flashed a rom, if you are s-off you can do this with the phone on, if you are s-on you have to go to recovery and mount /system and /sd-ext.

I recommend you use for this Android Commander

HTC Stocks:

com.htc.StockWidget.apk

DCSStock.apk

Stock.apk

HTC Mail. If you don't use exchange or you use an alternate app for exchange(K9 Mail)

htcmailwidgets.apk

Mail.apk

HTC Radio

com.htc.FMRadioWidget.apk

HtcFMRadio.apk

HTC News reader

HtcGreader.apk

HtcGreaderWidget.apk

HTC Likes

HtcRecommends.apk

HtcRecommendsWidget.apk

HTC Messages - if you use Handcent you can remove default htc message apks - you dont need 2 apks for the same thing

Mms.apk

htcmsgwidgets.apk

Included live wallpapers, if you dont use them or need them you can delete those too

LiveWallpapers.apk

LiveWallpapersPicker.apk

MagicSmokeWallpapers.apk

Mode10Wallpapers.apk

VisualizationWallpapers.apk

Flickr- well if you don't use it for uploading ur pics its safe to delete

Flickr.apk

HTC Sense - if you prefer launcherpro or adw or whatever and dont need htc sense you can delete

Rosie.apk

You can delete any apk from /system that has the word widget into his name if you don't need it

You can also remove from sd-ext/.systemapp and from sd-ext/.lib the corresponding libs for the apks you removed.

But you need to edit the updater-script.

For example, you don't need HTC Premium Navigations (Locations).

you go insinde the zip/sd-ext/.systemapp and you delete:

HtcLaputa.apk

HtcLaputaInstaller.apk

HtcLaputaWidget.apk

LocationPickerLaputa.apk

also now that you removed the apks you also don't need their libs

so we go insinde rom.zip/sd-ext/.lib and delete:

libLaputaEngine.so

libLaputaLbJni.so

libLaputaLbProviderJni.so

libLaputaLogJni.so

Ok now that we removed those files we need to edit out updater-script since those files were symlinked.

So we open in notepad++ the following file:

rom.zip/META-INF/com/google/android/updater-script

and remove the symlink lines with those files. in this particular case

symlink("/system/sd/.lib/libLaputaEngine.so","/system/lib/libLaputaEngine.so");

symlink("/system/sd/.lib/libLaputaLbJni.so","/system/lib/libLaputaLbJni.so");

symlink("/system/sd/.lib/libLaputaLbProviderJni.so","/system/lib/libLaputaLbProviderJni.so");

symlink("/system/sd/.lib/libLaputaLogJni.so","/system/lib/libLaputaLogJni.so");

symlink("/system/sd/.systemapp/HtcLaputa.apk","/system/app/HtcLaputa.apk");

symlink("/system/sd/.systemapp/HtcLaputaInstaller.apk","/system/app/HtcLaputaInstaller.apk");

symlink("/system/sd/.systemapp/HtcLaputaWidget.apk","/system/app/HtcLaputaWidget.apk");

symlink("/system/sd/.systemapp/LocationPickerLaputa.apk","/system/app/LocationPickerLaputa.apk");

Take care that not all apks from sd-ext have special libs. some like ereader.apk don't have so you just have to delete the apks.