Peter,

Thanks for this. It is somewhat problematic for a number of reasons:

- python2 is EOL.

- as you point out, platform.linux_distribution() is deprecated and slated for
removal in python3 (presumably for the very reason you have discovered -- it
isn't reliable).

- In my opinion, applications and functions should use output of lsb_release
-a directly (as many already do).

- Devuan beowulf deliberately has ID=Debian in lsb_release -a (see the Release
Notes[1] for an explanation why). This has been changed to ID=Devuan for
ceres/chimaera.

- neither python2 nor python3 are forked packages and Devuan uses Debian's
packages directly.

Considering all that, I find it difficult to see a feasible route to fixing
this. Having /etc/lsb_release as another source of information only consulted by
some applications seems a retrograde step.

Best wishes,

Mark

[1] https://files.devuan.org/devuan_beowulf/Release_notes.txt