diff -r 12bf7fc1ba76 Lib/platform.py
--- a/Lib/platform.py	Tue Oct 22 20:03:47 2013 +0100
+++ b/Lib/platform.py	Thu Oct 24 17:25:45 2013 +0300
@@ -243,6 +243,7 @@
 
     return distname,version,id
 
+_os_release_info = re.compile(r'^(?!#)(.+)=([\'\"]?)(.+)\2$')
 _release_filename = re.compile(r'(\w+)[-_](release|version)', re.ASCII)
 _lsb_release_version = re.compile(r'(.+)'
                                    ' release '
@@ -290,6 +291,22 @@
             id = l[1]
     return '', version, id
 
+def _parse_os_release():
+    with open('/etc/os-release') as f:
+        info = {}
+
+        for line in f:
+            m = _os_release_info.match(line)
+            if m is not None:
+                key = m.group(1)
+                _value = m.group(3)
+                value = bytes(_value, 'utf-8').decode("unicode_escape")
+                info[key] = value
+
+        return info
+
+    return None
+
 def linux_distribution(distname='', version='', id='',
 
                        supported_dists=_supported_dists,
@@ -297,9 +314,9 @@
 
     """ Tries to determine the name of the Linux OS distribution name.
 
-        The function first looks for a distribution release file in
-        /etc and then reverts to _dist_try_harder() in case no
-        suitable files are found.
+        The function first checks for an /etc/os-release file, then
+        looks for a distribution release file in /etc and then reverts
+        to _dist_try_harder() in case no suitable files are found.
 
         supported_dists may be given to define the set of Linux
         distributions to look for. It defaults to a list of currently
@@ -318,7 +335,18 @@
         etc = os.listdir('/etc')
     except OSError:
         # Probably not a Unix system
-        return distname,version,id
+        return distname, version, id
+
+    os_release_info = _parse_os_release()
+    if os_release_info is not None:
+        if 'NAME' in os_release_info:
+            distname = os_release_info['NAME']
+        if 'VERSION_ID' in os_release_info:
+            version = os_release_info['VERSION_ID']
+        if 'ID' in os_release_info:
+            id = os_release_info['ID']
+        return distname, version, id
+
     etc.sort()
     for file in etc:
         m = _release_filename.match(file)