So a restore doesn't wipe the Cydia apps out? I would like to reclaim that space without jailbreaking if I can.
No, restore does wipe it out, including the 500MB of space Cydia takes up when moving files. There is just a way to save a list of Cydia apps IF you want to re-jailbreak. I don't know why you wouldn't want to though.
Basically if you restored and then upgraded to 3.0 then you should have the newest FW with the most free space available.
Anytime you restore or upgrade it will wipe/break your jailbreak. If you want to rejailbreak after an upgrade, install aptbackup from cydia beforehand. Then run it, click backup, and it will create a small .txt file in the iphone's system which holds through a restore/upgrade. After you upgrade, just install aptbackup again and run the restore function. It will install everything you had dl'd through cydia, including sources. Some minor tweaks for setting might be needed.
I have read in places that a restore doesn't wipe all jb'd info from the phone and that the only way to do that is restore, erase all data, and restore again. It might be true, but if not adds an extra hour or two to the whole process.
Im upgrading firmware tonight and plan on doing the restore thing but I have read some tutorials on upgrading firmware of an already JB iphone and it stresses that after the firmware is upgraded, to JB the iphone immediately before restoring your phone from a back-up. The thing is I wont be able to do this since the pwnage tools havent been released...........I would like to know how important this step is since I was planning on just JBing when the tools come out, then restoring my cydia apps using apt back-up.
Here is the link to the tutorial, STEP 6 is the section I am refferring to about JBing before restoring a back-up.
iphonedownloadblog.xxx/2008/09/19/upgrade-a-jailbroken-iphone/ (replace X's with "com")....cant post links yet.