The Linux Standard Base (http://www.linuxbase.org/) is a standard
 core system that third-party applications written for Linux can
 depend upon.
 .
 The lsb-release command is a simple tool to help identify the Linux
 distribution being used and its compliance with the Linux Standard Base.
 LSB conformance will not be reported unless the required metapackages are
 installed.
 .
 While it is intended for use by LSB packages, this command may also
 be useful for programmatically distinguishing between a pure Debian
 installation and derived distributions.