Powell, Michael sent:
The system name or hostname is important to networking; so, I can see why it's under networking, but I believe your frustration is more related to the lack of guidance and quality than anything else.
Tim:
Well, actually, for a lot of people, the system name is simply what they want to call the computer. The computer may not even be on a network, at all. There's certainly cause for having a process of naming the computer.
for having a *non-network* process of naming it...
Which brings to mind an annoying situation that crops up from time to time: Booting up a computer that's usually connected to a network, but sometimes not. For those "not" times, you may find your computer has been renamed "localhost," which is annoying at best, and problematic at worst (if you have some things that used the old hostname, and expect it to still be in use).
Likewise for connecting that same computer to another network, which gives it a different hostname.