How to get Linux distribution name and version?

Question

In Windows I read the registry key SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\ProductName to get the full name and version of the OS.

But in Linux, th

Answer 1

lsb_release -ds ; uname -mr

on my system yields the following from the bash (terminal) prompt:

Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS
2.6.32-41-generic x86_64