Oh wow, so it depends on the *build* time major version? That's really not useful at all for linux 2.x and 3.x; there is nothing useful anyone can possibly do with the distinction between platform == "linux2" and platform == "linux3". All it could possibly do is to break apps.

Given that:
a) old versions of Python won't even build without a patch and
b) changing platform to linux3 will break a lot of python apps that check sys.platform. 
c) It's completely useless to change it, as the change contains no actual information.

Why is forcing sys.platform to remain linux2 not the *obviously right thing to do*?