Link Categories in 2.1

I am not clever at code, PHP and CSS – I am just an end user bemused as to why some functionality I liked was removed.

Before 2.1 I could click a few options and make links in each category display in random order – now they are just all displaying alphabetically, so some never appear at the top, some always appear at the bottom. I have taken to putting the letter A in front of some to make sure I get them to the top – but would prefer the random display.

I have read extensively on this and still can’t figure much of it out – why has it been changed so I have to go in and start editing code to make the blog work how I want?

I think I am supposed to use the wp_get_bookmarks template tag, but have no idea what arguments to put in so I can tell different categories to display links differently (ie say I want one link category to display alphabetically, another one randomly, and another by writing) – how would this be done, what code would I need to change in all the templates I use in all my various blogs?