diff -r 247f12fecf2b Lib/platform.py
--- a/Lib/platform.py	Sun Jan 05 12:00:31 2014 -0800
+++ b/Lib/platform.py	Mon Jan 06 18:51:48 2014 +0800
@@ -113,6 +113,7 @@
 
 import collections
 import sys, os, re, subprocess
+from warnings import warn
 
 ### Globals & Constants
 
@@ -318,6 +319,8 @@
         args given as parameters.
 
     """
+    warn("The dist()/linux_distribution() function is deprecated",
+         DeprecationWarning, 2)
     try:
         etc = os.listdir(_UNIXCONFDIR)
     except OSError: