diff --git a/Doc/library/platform.rst b/Doc/library/platform.rst
index 2ef2f0a..47f0e7e 100644
--- a/Doc/library/platform.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/platform.rst
@@ -195,8 +195,9 @@
 
    .. note::
 
-      This function only works if Mark Hammond's :mod:`win32all` package is installed
-      and (obviously) only runs on Win32 compatible platforms.
+      Note: this function works best with Mark Hammond's
+      :mod:`win32all` package installed, but also on Python 2.3 and
+      later. It obviously only runs on Win32 compatible platforms.
 
 
 Win95/98 specific
@@ -230,13 +231,31 @@
 --------------
 
 
-.. function:: dist(distname='', version='', id='', supported_dists=('SuSE','debian','redhat','mandrake'))
+.. function:: dist(distname='', version='', id='', supported_dists=('SuSE','debian','redhat','mandrake',...))
 
    Tries to determine the name of the OS distribution name Returns a tuple
    ``(distname, version, id)`` which defaults to the args given as parameters.
 
-.. XXX Document linux_distribution()?
+   ``supported_dists`` may be given to define the set of Linux
+   distributions to look for. It defaults to a list of currently
+   supported Linux distributions identified by their release file
+   name.
 
+.. function:: linux_distribution(distname='', version='', id='', supported_dists=('SuSE','debian','redhat','mandrake',...), full_distribution_name=1)
+
+   Tries to determine the name of the Linux OS distribution name.
+
+   ``supported_dists`` may be given to define the set of Linux
+   distributions to look for. It defaults to a list of currently
+   supported Linux distributions identified by their release file
+   name.
+
+   If ``full_distribution_name`` is true (default), the full
+   distribution read from the OS is returned. Otherwise the short name
+   taken from ``supported_dists`` is used.
+
+   Returns a tuple ``(distname,version,id)`` which defaults to the
+   args given as parameters.
 
 .. function:: libc_ver(executable=sys.executable, lib='', version='', chunksize=2048)