In this paper, we present a unifying approach to the problems of computing of stability radii of positive linear systems. First, we study stability radii of linear time-invariant parameter-varying differential systems. A formula for the complex stability radius under multi perturbations is given. Then, under hypotheses of positivity of the system matrices, we prove that the complex, real and positive stability radii of the system under multi perturbations (or affine perturbations) coincide and they are computed via simple formulae. As applications, we consider problems of computing of (strong) stability radii of linear time-invariant time-delay differential systems and computing of stability radii of positive linear functional differential equations under multi perturbations and affine perturbations. We show that for a class of positive linear time-delay differential systems, the stability radii of the system under multi perturbations (or affine perturbations) are equal to the strong stability radii. Next, we prove that the stability radii of a positive linear functional differential equation under multi perturbations (or affine perturbations) are equal to those of the associated linear time-invariant parameter-varying differential system. In particular, we get back some explicit formulas for these stability radii which are given recently in [P.H.A. Ngoc, Strong stability radii of positive linear time-delay systems, Internat. J. Robust Nonlinear Control 15 (2005) 459–472; P.H.A. Ngoc, N.K. Son, Stability radii of positive linear functional differential equations under multi perturbations, SIAM J. Control Optim. 43 (2005) 2278–2295]. Finally, we give two examples to illustrate the obtained results.