Last I heard the alphabetical loading only really happened on windows machines. I think removing the file and adding another copy in will force it lower on the list in a *nix environment but i'm not 100% sure there.
Well, given that java ultimately is the one loading it, I'd hazard a guess at it indexing the mod_modname.class files, which is required for modloader to accept the mod. Java does a system call to get the information iirc, which in windows always is sorted by caps insensitive and alphabetically. Unix systems should always be caps sensitive alphabetically, altough I've not done enough work with java to verify if it returns this in other ways.
Regardless... a class file must always be named the same as the main class name, and thus a recompile is necessary to test it out.
doing it this way, if it works, should fix the problem across the board.
The sad thing is I've yet to find out exactly how modloader sorts it, and can only guess. The reordering by file names on unix seems odd as it occurs to me that it's the same. Only the mod_pluginname.class seems to make up for the discrepancy, hence me asking for a test. I'd love a way to get modloader to load in an order that I decide, possibly through a config file of sorts.
Edit: bucketfiller did not load in a different order even with a new class name... so much for that idea. Anyone know the developer well enough to ask how this can be ?
Edit: Well, as I guessed, it has to do with the way the filesystem call returns the list to java. In good news, there is a way to get mods to load after another mod. The bad news ofc, being that it is implemented in the 1.9 version of modloader only. Thus all mods involved needs to be updated to 1.9, and possibly release version before we can use it. However it should fix this issue in the future, if the mods get the appropriate code. 
