diff --git a/configure b/configure
index 60719ddcc5..f88011b94d 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -899,7 +899,18 @@ fi
 
 : ${make=${MAKE-make}}
 : ${install=${INSTALL-install}}
-: ${python=${PYTHON-python}}
+# We prefer python 3.x. A bare 'python' is traditionally
+# python 2.x, but some distros have it as python 3.x, so
+# we check that before python2
+python=
+for binary in "${PYTHON-python3}" python python2
+do
+    if has "$binary"
+    then
+        python="$binary"
+        break
+    fi
+done
 : ${smbd=${SMBD-/usr/sbin/smbd}}
 
 # Default objcc to clang if available, otherwise use CC
@@ -1818,8 +1829,9 @@ EOF
 exit 0
 fi
 
-if ! has $python; then
-  error_exit "Python not found. Use --python=/path/to/python"
+if test -z "$python"
+then
+    error_exit "Python not found. Use --python=/path/to/python"
 fi
 
 # Note that if the Python conditional here evaluates True we will exit