Forcing Linux to recognize NICS in BIOS order

[Michael ODonnell]

This "persistent naming" issue gained importance as
interconnect technologies like SCSI, FibreChannel,
USB, PCMCIA and HotPlug PCI (to name a few) made it
possible for physical configurations to change from run
to run or even on the fly.  Addressing this issue was
one of the goals of udev.  I guess I need to read up
on udev, though, because I didn't think it would apply
in this case of network interfaces, since they have not
(traditionally) been accessed via filesystem entries (i.e.
you don't typically refer to something like /dev/eth0 when
manipulationg your network connections) yet I saw a mention
of udev earlier in this thread.  Anybody care to elaborate?