diff --git a/Lib/platform.py b/Lib/platform.py
--- a/Lib/platform.py
+++ b/Lib/platform.py
@@ -111,6 +111,7 @@
 
 __version__ = '1.0.7'
 
+import collections
 import sys, os, re
 
 ### Globals & Constants
@@ -1027,6 +1028,9 @@
 
 ### Portable uname() interface
 
+uname_result = collections.namedtuple("uname_result",
+                    "system node release version machine processor")
+
 _uname_cache = None
 
 def uname():
@@ -1161,7 +1165,7 @@
         system = 'Windows'
         release = 'Vista'
 
-    _uname_cache = system,node,release,version,machine,processor
+    _uname_cache = uname_result(system,node,release,version,machine,processor)
     return _uname_cache
 
 ### Direct interfaces to some of the uname() return values
@@ -1173,7 +1177,7 @@
         An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
     """
-    return uname()[0]
+    return uname().system
 
 def node():
 
@@ -1183,7 +1187,7 @@
         An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
     """
-    return uname()[1]
+    return uname().node
 
 def release():
 
@@ -1192,7 +1196,7 @@
         An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
     """
-    return uname()[2]
+    return uname().release
 
 def version():
 
@@ -1201,7 +1205,7 @@
         An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
     """
-    return uname()[3]
+    return uname().version
 
 def machine():
 
@@ -1210,7 +1214,7 @@
         An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
     """
-    return uname()[4]
+    return uname().machine
 
 def processor():
 
@@ -1222,7 +1226,7 @@
         e.g.  NetBSD does this.
 
     """
-    return uname()[5]
+    return uname().processor
 
 ### Various APIs for extracting information from sys.version
 
diff --git a/Lib/sysconfig.py b/Lib/sysconfig.py
--- a/Lib/sysconfig.py
+++ b/Lib/sysconfig.py
@@ -553,7 +553,7 @@
                 _CONFIG_VARS['srcdir'] = os.path.normpath(srcdir)
 
         if sys.platform == 'darwin':
-            kernel_version = os.uname()[2]  # Kernel version (8.4.3)
+            kernel_version = os.uname().release  # Kernel version (8.4.3)
             major_version = int(kernel_version.split('.')[0])
 
             if major_version < 8:
diff --git a/Lib/test/test__locale.py b/Lib/test/test__locale.py
--- a/Lib/test/test__locale.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test__locale.py
@@ -11,8 +11,8 @@
 from platform import uname
 from test.support import run_unittest
 
-if uname()[0] == "Darwin":
-    maj, min, mic = [int(part) for part in uname()[2].split(".")]
+if uname().system == "Darwin":
+    maj, min, mic = [int(part) for part in uname().release.split(".")]
     if (maj, min, mic) < (8, 0, 0):
         raise unittest.SkipTest("locale support broken for OS X < 10.4")
 
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_platform.py b/Lib/test/test_platform.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_platform.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_platform.py
@@ -166,7 +166,7 @@
     def test_mac_ver(self):
         res = platform.mac_ver()
 
-        if platform.uname()[0] == 'Darwin':
+        if platform.uname().system == 'Darwin':
             # We're on a MacOSX system, check that
             # the right version information is returned
             fd = os.popen('sw_vers', 'r')