iOS 4.2 and iPhone 3G

For anyone still using an iPhone 3G, have you noticed that iOS 4.2 is much slower than iOS 4.1?

iOS 4.0 was an unusable disaster. I had the urge to snap my phone in half 75% of the time. iOS 4.1 was wonderful, and lowered my urge to destroy the phone to <10%. With iOS 4.2, which I have been using since its release, this urge to destroy the POS phone has shot back up, to >50%. Text entry is slower, pandora invariably crashes after 20-30 minutes of usage. Most non-apple applications crash after several minutes of usage. Phone occasionally becomes totally unresponsive for 30+ sec.

I did a MacRumors search and I couldn’t find any threads about 3G and iOS 4.2. Maybe everyone finally gave up on the poor old 3G? I did a google search and everyone seems to be praising iOS 4.2 and saying that it is faster. But they rarely mention what it’s faster than. iOS 4.1, yeah right, in your dreams. iOS 4.0, well sure, even a comatose turtle is faster than that software fiasco.

Does apple provide old version of iOS? Or do I have to torrent the ipw (?) for iOS 4.1?

Thanks much and happy new years everyone.