diff --git a/r/DESCRIPTION b/r/DESCRIPTION
index b54616e6a25..9d1a7c585fd 100644
--- a/r/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/r/DESCRIPTION
@@ -38,6 +38,7 @@ RoxygenNote: 7.1.1
 VignetteBuilder: knitr
 Suggests:
     decor,
+    distro,
     dplyr,
     hms,
     knitr,
diff --git a/r/tools/linuxlibs.R b/r/tools/linuxlibs.R
index 814316de254..c5b53ad2dd3 100644
--- a/r/tools/linuxlibs.R
+++ b/r/tools/linuxlibs.R
@@ -98,6 +98,12 @@ identify_os <- function(os = Sys.getenv("LIBARROW_BINARY", Sys.getenv("LIBARROW_
 #### start distro ####
 
 distro <- function() {
+  # The code in this script is a (potentially stale) copy of the distro package
+  if (requireNamespace("distro", quietly = TRUE)) {
+    # Use the version from the package, which may be updated from this
+    return(distro::distro())
+  }
+
   out <- lsb_release()
   if (is.null(out)) {
     out <- os_release()