Keep the home launcher from being killed I have a Motorola Milestone, and I've come to learn that it has a relatively low memory (runtime memory, not storage capacity). The problem that comes with this is that whenever too many apps want to run in the background, the android system starts killing stuff, and with my Milestone that happens very easily. 

That wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the fact that android seems to think the home launcher is the least important app of all (which is absurdly wrong). For instance, right now I have a series of apps poluting the background, some important (like Swype) and some pointless (like Facebook). If I open up even a simple app like Messages or Contacts or Settings the homelauncher gets killed in the background. Once I press the Home button, I am greeted with an empty home screen, and have to wait around 1 or 2 minutes for everything to load again.

This happens with all home launchers I tried, though it happens more easily with the heavier ones. So far, I managed to live with this behavior by religiously avoiding apps that run in the background (as well as widgets).  But this solution is not perfect. It still happens more often than I'd like.

Is there a way to change android's priorities when it comes to killing background apps?  But why does the home launcher rank lower than Google Maps' location service and Facebook's (inactive) uploader  and everything else? I want the home launcher to be last thing that gets killed when memory is low, or as close to last as possible (e.g. it obviously can't rank higher than the currently active app, but you get my point).

I currently have Cyanogen mod 6 installed, but it also happened on the stock android OS, and I am willing to install absolutely ANY custom ROM to solve this issue.
I think ADW Launcher has a setting that should keep the application in memory. Also, CM has a setting to force the OS to keep the launcher in memory. I dont remember where it is at in CM6, but in CM7 it is in Settings -> CyanogenMod Settings -> Performance and it is called "Lock Home in Memory". I don't remember if it was in the same place or if it was called the same in CM6.