Greetings linux experts....

I'm a longtime Ubuntu user (~6 yrs) and prefer to run old hardware (<1Ghz processor, <512MB ram). For this reason i've stuck with older Ubuntus (8.04, 10.04) and prefer to run with openbox desktop to keep things lean.

I've been doing some distro research but can't find an answer. Seems as though many previous Ubuntu users have switched to Arch linux and often mention how lean and non-bloated their installs/systems run.

I'm happy with Ubuntu and the performance is okay, considering the old hardware.

Question: If Ubuntu 8.04 uses linux-headers 2.6.24 and the latest Arch linux uses linux-headers 3.5.6, won't the most recent install of Arch (they use a rolling release system) run heavier/slower than my old Ubuntu 8.04 install?

This is my hunch, can anyone with actual experience confirm?

Thanks in advance,

Mardybear