Hi:

Can two hosts in the same LAN have the same local hostname?

yes, unless there's winbind or somethign broadcasting it, it's irrelevant what thte internal machien name is.

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i think, without problem, unless you try run samba server, or using hostname to work with it via network ( like a ping hostname.com and so - it may be involve problems with which host in which conditions really answer on that )
but why you need the same hostname for two machines? :-O

It was before I began with networking that I put them that name. Besides, slackware puts it by default.

internal hostnames really have nothing at all to do with networking 99% of the time

you easy change it any time. get edit files /etc/HOSTNAME and /etc/hosts for change a local machine name.

Thanks guys. By the way, I'm reading The Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 2nd edition from The Linux Documentation Project and wondered if it is up to date. I mentions LInux 2.0!

many things in linux is unchanged for many, many years

Yes but slackware being so traditional, the book, which is not intended specifically for it, mentions /etc/rc.d/*, which is relatively new (perhaps not so new).

the rc.d directory is not new in any way at all. 15 years I've been using Linux (holy crap!) and it's always been there on Redhat

rc.d not new. in my first slack, 4.0, if i remeber correctly, always be rc.d .
in distros like a red hat and so on startup scripts look strong different and not that easy as in slack.
also todays many distros is more and more like to microsoft products in philosophy.
for example: in slack you can give user any password without pain. if you give too simple password, i e "abc", slack warn you, but entering the same pass twice, it allow you to use that password, what you want.
in redhat is differently situation - it is like a microsoft product. it has think, it know better than you, what you want - you cannot give simple password in easy way - system ping back to you with "password is too simple, choose another password!".
that is one of key moments between good systems, like a slackware, and bad," build for idiots, who, expectly, do not know any, so be them be cannot be given full control"

Well, I maybe was wrong because there is a whole new class of *.d/ directories now, as in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/.

certainly .d directories as a more generic thing has come of age somewhat. They're a great convention to follow. Makes deploying software so so much easier

Very well said. The microsoft mentality is general. For example the VHS recorder went to the tape end and then, without asking anything, it rewinded and ejected while me, in the middle of the night, was in the deeper slip!

Worst even, why does the dvd burner eject the disk after burning! I now pass by and ... kiss good by to the tray.

That makes you look *really* daft. There's nothing wrong with some sane defaults in certain places.