what kind of /etc/fstab is this?

[Amadeus W.M.]

Just noticed, 

cat /etc/fstab

UUID=37f495c9-c91c-4310-9598-14076aad3c62 /                       ext3    
defaults        1 1
UUID=db242ada-59d9-4cc3-a0c9-04016ba6245d /backup                 xfs     
defaults        1 2
UUID=fd4ec4c9-4b0a-4742-a5e2-5f3e25f2a3d1 /var                    xfs     
defaults        1 2
UUID=6fbc5461-6eb5-4bc7-bb75-7ad96da8c161 /usr                    ext3    
defaults        1 2
UUID=d21466ea-715d-44be-be5c-b162a1460eb1 /usr/local              ext3    
defaults        1 2
UUID=770ebefb-c760-4aef-81f5-57ff41b80ed4 /tmp                    ext3    
defaults        1 2

etc. 

What's with the cryptic device labels? What creates them? What was wrong 
and what happened with the good ole' /dev/sda? and such? The same crap can 
be found in grub.conf too. Is it selinux? Are my drives encrypted or 
something?

And what can I do to get back to the sane old-style drive names?

Yes, I know I can do mount to see what drive is mounted where, but I 
really don't understand what purpose this sort of improvement serves.