How Debian managed the systemd transition

Another problem is that while the interface names might (sometimes) be predictable across time on a single machine, they are emphatically not predictable across several machines at the same time. Especially with hardware manufacturers changing how they wire up their PCI buses without changing anything other than the revision number printed on the motherboard.

I've had a batch of computers, all the same nominal model from the same (big) manufacturer, all installed from the same netboot image, half calling their only Ethernet interface one thing and half calling it another. System administration scripting was so much easier when all machines had an eth0 connecting to the main network.