diff --git a/Doc/library/platform.rst b/Doc/library/platform.rst
index e80fc11474d..3c98a1eeba9 100644
--- a/Doc/library/platform.rst
+++ b/Doc/library/platform.rst
@@ -234,29 +234,23 @@ Unix Platforms
 
 .. 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.
-
-   ``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.
+   This is another name for :func:`linux_distribution`.
 
 .. 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.
+   ``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.
+   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.
+   Returns a tuple ``(distname,version,id)`` which defaults to the args given as
+   parameters.  ``id`` is the item in parentheses after the version number.  It
+   is usually the version codename.
 
 .. function:: libc_ver(executable=sys.executable, lib='', version='', chunksize=2048)