The distro (for: Linux Distribution) package provides information about the
Linux distribution it runs on, such as a reliable machine-readable ID, or
version information.

It is a renewed alternative implementation for Python's original
platform.linux_distribution function, but it also provides much more
functionality. An alternative implementation became necessary because
Python 3.5 deprecated this function, and Python 3.7 is expected to remove it
altogether. Its predecessor function platform.dist was already deprecated since
Python 2.6 and is also expected to be removed in Python 3.7. Still, there are
many cases in which access to that information is needed. See Python issue 1322
for more information.