10.04 or 10.10 Laptop, The older the better?

[Hydrathe]

Hi guys, I have some doubts about Linux Kernel, Hardware and Ubuntu in general, I hope someone can bring some light over my worry:

I am about to wipe my brother's laptop and fresh install Ubuntu. The laptop is a Toshiba Qosmio F50-10Q, 3-4 years old. 10.10 installed right now, SD card reader and battery applets dont work (estimating forever), Gave 10.04 LTS a try from Live USB and to my surprise, SD card reader and battery applets work, Bluetooth and TV card do not.
I supose that new drivers were included in 10.10 and thats why Bluetooth and TV card work, but I dont understand why things that worked on 10.04 dont work anymore on 10.10. Are drivers removed from one release to another?
If not, I supose its a bug or an incompatibility, Can I install the bluetooth and TV card drivers on 10.04 and make everything work?

I have heard that every new release of the Kernel is more compatible with new hardware and less with the old one, is this true?
What's better for old hardware? Old releases with up to date software or new releases as long as they work.

Thanks a lot for your time.

[Lars Noodén]

I would not worry so much about the kernel as I would the other applications. You can get a lot of light weight defaults by installing Lubuntu.