> It would be an interface to a file /etc/os-release
> that's common nowadays, just like /etc/lsb-release was some years
> ago. These things change too often to make the stdlib a good fit.
> I'm pretty sure distros will invent something new in 5 years which
> would then render the API mostly useless again.

That's pointless speculation -- unless you found a fool-proof way to see into the future.

Where do you draw the line? Should the stdlib ignore any standard and API that is less than 10 years old? 20 years?