Index: Python-3.3.0/Lib/platform.py
===================================================================
--- Python-3.3.0.orig/Lib/platform.py
+++ Python-3.3.0/Lib/platform.py
@@ -290,6 +290,23 @@ def _parse_release_file(firstline):
             id = l[1]
     return '', version, id
 
+def _find_linux_release_file(supported_dists):
+    '''Select a file that may hold release information on a linux distribution
+
+    :raises os.error: if the /etc/ directory does not exist
+    :returns: the complete path to the file
+    '''
+    # Can throw os.error which is caught in the caller
+    etc = os.listdir('/etc')
+    etc.sort()
+    for file in etc:
+        m = _release_filename.match(file)
+        if m is not None:
+            _distname,dummy = m.groups()
+            if _distname in supported_dists:
+                return _distname, os.path.join('/etc', file)
+    return None, None
+
 def linux_distribution(distname='', version='', id='',
 
                        supported_dists=_supported_dists,
@@ -315,23 +332,15 @@ def linux_distribution(distname='', vers
 
     """
     try:
-        etc = os.listdir('/etc')
+        distname, file = _find_linux_release_file(supported_dists)
     except os.error:
         # Probably not a Unix system
-        return distname,version,id
-    etc.sort()
-    for file in etc:
-        m = _release_filename.match(file)
-        if m is not None:
-            _distname,dummy = m.groups()
-            if _distname in supported_dists:
-                distname = _distname
-                break
-    else:
+        return distname, version, id
+    if not file:
         return _dist_try_harder(distname,version,id)
 
     # Read the first line
-    with open('/etc/'+file, 'r') as f:
+    with open(file, 'r', encoding='utf-8', errors='surrogateescape') as f:
         firstline = f.readline()
     _distname, _version, _id = _parse_release_file(firstline)
 
Index: Python-3.3.0/Lib/test/test_platform.py
===================================================================
--- Python-3.3.0.orig/Lib/test/test_platform.py
+++ Python-3.3.0/Lib/test/test_platform.py
@@ -2,9 +2,12 @@ import os
 import platform
 import subprocess
 import sys
+import tempfile
 import unittest
 import warnings
 
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock, patch
+
 from test import support
 
 class PlatformTest(unittest.TestCase):
@@ -37,6 +40,60 @@ class PlatformTest(unittest.TestCase):
             for terse in (False, True):
                 res = platform.platform(aliased, terse)
 
+    def test_dist_with_unicode(self):
+        # Test reading the platform information with a variety of "odd" locale
+        # settings and odd encodings of the files.  (Want to catch tracebacks
+        # in unicode handling and unknown encodings of that file)
+
+        # Expectations:
+        # utf8_data will come out as utf8
+        # latin1_data will be mangled with some surrogateescapes
+        # locale will have no effect on the outcome
+
+        # data
+        release_string = "Fedora release 19 (Schrödinger's Cat)\n"
+        parsed_release_string = ("fedora", "19", "Schrödinger's Cat")
+        parsed_mangled_latin1_release_as_utf8 = ("fedora", "19", "Schr\udcf6dinger's_Cat")
+
+        # UTF-8 test
+        with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as f:
+            utf8_data_filename = f.name
+            f.write(release_string.encode('utf-8'))
+            f.flush()
+
+            find_utf8_file = MagicMock()
+            find_utf8_file.return_value = ('fedora', utf8_data_filename)
+
+            # The linux_distribution function reads from a file so we have to
+            # mock out the file that will be found by that
+            with patch('platform._find_linux_release_file', find_utf8_file):
+                old_locale = os.environ.get('LC_ALL', None)
+
+                for locale in ('C', 'pt_BR.UTF8', 'pt_BR.ISO8859-1'):
+                    os.environ['LC_ALL'] = locale
+                    self.assertEqual(platform.dist(), parsed_release_string)
+
+                os.environ['LC_ALL'] = old_locale
+
+        with tempfile.NamedTemporaryFile() as f:
+            latin1_data_filename = f.name
+            f.write(release_string.encode('latin-1'))
+            f.flush()
+
+            find_latin1_file = MagicMock()
+            find_latin1_file.return_value = ('fedora', latin1_data_filename)
+
+            # The linux_distribution function reads from a file so we have to
+            # mock out the file that will be found by that
+            with patch('platform._find_linux_release_file', find_latin1_file):
+                old_locale = os.environ.get('LC_ALL', None)
+
+                for locale in ('C', 'pt_BR.UTF8', 'pt_BR.ISO8859-1'):
+                    os.environ['LC_ALL'] = locale
+                    self.assertTrue(platform.dist(), parsed_mangled_latin1_release_as_utf8)
+
+                os.environ['LC_ALL'] = old_locale
+
     def test_system(self):
         res = platform.system()