diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index d63c9edb7..6eb2b4617 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -480,7 +480,6 @@ OPTION(OSG_USE_REF_PTR_IMPLICIT_OUTPUT_CONVERSION "Set to ON to use the ref_ptr<
 OPTION(OSG_USE_REF_PTR_SAFE_DEREFERENCE "Set to ON to throw an exception whenever ref_ptr<> is dereferenced or called. " OFF)
 
 OPTION(OSG_ENVVAR_SUPPORTED "Set to ON to build OpenSceneGraph with the #define OSG_ENVVAR_SUPPORTED, found in include/osg/Config, to enable use of getenv() related functions." ON)
-OPTION(OSG_SYSTEM_SUPPORTED "Set to ON to build OpenSceneGraph with the #define OSG_SYSTEM_SUPPORTED, found in include/osg/Config, to enable use of system() related functions." ON)
 
 
 
diff --git a/src/osg/Config.in b/src/osg/Config.in
index 610b407df..8f4c23359 100644
--- a/src/osg/Config.in
+++ b/src/osg/Config.in
@@ -35,6 +35,5 @@
 #cmakedefine OSG_PROVIDE_READFILE
 #cmakedefine OSG_USE_DEPRECATED_API
 #cmakedefine OSG_ENVVAR_SUPPORTED
-#cmakedefine OSG_SYSTEM_SUPPORTED
 
 #endif
diff --git a/src/osg/os_utils.cpp b/src/osg/os_utils.cpp
index d8d881791..7689c122f 100644
--- a/src/osg/os_utils.cpp
+++ b/src/osg/os_utils.cpp
@@ -15,14 +15,29 @@
 
 extern "C" {
 
+#define USE_POSIX_SPAWN defined(__APPLE__)
+//#define USE_POSIX_SPAWN true
+
+#if USE_POSIX_SPAWN
+
+#include <spawn.h>
+#include <sys/wait.h>
+
+int osg_system(const char* command)
+{
+    pid_t pid;
+    posix_spawn(&pid, command, NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL);
+    return waitpid(pid, NULL, 0);
+}
+
+#else // use tranditional C sysmtem call for osg_system implementation
+
 int osg_system(const char* command)
 {
-#ifdef OSG_SYSTEM_SUPPORTED
     return system(command);
-#else
-    printf("osg_system(%s) not supported.\n", command);
+}
+
 #endif
-}
 
 }