diff -r 262204877004 Doc/library/platform.rst
--- a/Doc/library/platform.rst	Mon Apr 14 11:20:45 2014 -0400
+++ b/Doc/library/platform.rst	Tue Apr 15 15:33:13 2014 -0400
@@ -137,11 +137,16 @@
    returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
 
-.. function:: system()
+.. function:: system(aliased=0)
 
    Returns the system/OS name, e.g. ``'Linux'``, ``'Windows'``, or ``'Java'``. An
    empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
+   If *aliased* is true, the function will use aliases for various platforms that
+   report system names which differ from their common names, for example SunOS will
+   be reported as Solaris.  The :func:`system_alias` function is used to implement
+   this.
+
 
 .. function:: system_alias(system, release, version)
 
diff -r 262204877004 Lib/platform.py
--- a/Lib/platform.py	Mon Apr 14 11:20:45 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/platform.py	Tue Apr 15 15:33:13 2014 -0400
@@ -1118,14 +1118,25 @@
 
 ### Direct interfaces to some of the uname() return values
 
-def system():
+def system(aliased=0):
 
     """ Returns the system/OS name, e.g. 'Linux', 'Windows' or 'Java'.
 
+        if "aliased" is true, the function will use aliases for
+        various platforms that report system names which differ from
+        their common names, e.g. SunOS will be reported as
+        Solaris. The system_alias() function is used to implement
+        this.
+
         An empty string is returned if the value cannot be determined.
 
     """
-    return uname().system
+    if aliased:
+        system, node, release, version, machine, processor = uname()
+        system, release, version = system_alias(system, release, version)
+        return system
+    else:
+        return uname().system
 
 def node():
 
diff -r 262204877004 Lib/test/test_platform.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_platform.py	Mon Apr 14 11:20:45 2014 -0400
+++ b/Lib/test/test_platform.py	Tue Apr 15 15:33:13 2014 -0400
@@ -40,7 +40,8 @@
                 res = platform.platform(aliased, terse)
 
     def test_system(self):
-        res = platform.system()
+        for aliased in (False, True):
+            res = platform.system(aliased)
 
     def test_node(self):
         res = platform.node()