diff --git a/osc/commandline.py b/osc/commandline.py
index 563a16ba..3fa9835f 100644
--- a/osc/commandline.py
+++ b/osc/commandline.py
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ from . import conf
 from . import oscerr
 from .core import *
 from .util import safewriter
-from .util.helper import _html_escape
+from .util.helper import _html_escape, format_table
 
 
 MAN_HEADER = r""".TH %(ucname)s "1" "%(date)s" "%(name)s %(version)s" "User Commands"
@@ -5341,10 +5341,6 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
 
 
     @cmdln.alias('dists')
-# FIXME: using just ^DISCONTINUED as match is not a general approach and only valid for one instance
-#        we need to discuss an api call for that, if we need this
-#    @cmdln.option('-d', '--discontinued', action='store_true',
-#                        help='show discontinued distributions')
     def do_distributions(self, subcmd, opts, *args):
         """${cmd_name}: Shows all available distributions
 
@@ -5358,7 +5354,14 @@ Please submit there instead, or use --nodevelproject to force direct submission.
         """
         apiurl = self.get_api_url()
 
-        print('\n'.join(get_distibutions(apiurl)))  # FIXME:, opts.discontinued))
+        dists = get_distributions(apiurl)
+        if dists:
+            headers = dists[0].keys()
+            rows = []
+            for dist in dists:
+                rows.append([dist[h] for h in headers])
+            print(format_table(rows, headers).rstrip())
+
 
     @cmdln.hide(1)
     def do_results_meta(self, subcmd, opts, *args):
diff --git a/osc/core.py b/osc/core.py
index be717381..8ccef36a 100644
--- a/osc/core.py
+++ b/osc/core.py
@@ -5603,59 +5603,23 @@ def get_repositories(apiurl):
     return r
 
 
-def get_distibutions(apiurl, discon=False):
-    r = []
+def get_distributions(apiurl):
+    """Returns list of dicts with headers
+      'distribution', 'project', 'repository', 'reponame'"""
 
-    # FIXME: this is just a naming convention on api.opensuse.org, but not a general valid apparoach
-    if discon:
-        result_line_templ = '%(name)-25s %(project)s'
-        f = http_GET(makeurl(apiurl, ['build']))
-        root = ET.fromstring(''.join(f))
+    f = http_GET(makeurl(apiurl, ['distributions']))
+    root = ET.fromstring(b''.join(f))
 
-        for node in root.findall('entry'):
-            if node.get('name').startswith('DISCONTINUED:'):
-                rmap = {}
-                rmap['name'] = node.get('name').replace('DISCONTINUED:', '').replace(':', ' ')
-                rmap['project'] = node.get('name')
-                r.append(result_line_templ % rmap)
-
-        r.insert(0, 'distribution              project')
-        r.insert(1, '------------              -------')
-
-    else:
-        f = http_GET(makeurl(apiurl, ['distributions']))
-        root = ET.fromstring(b''.join(f))
-
-        distlist = []
-        for node in root.findall('distribution'):
-            dmap = {}
-            for child in node:
-                if child.tag in ('name', 'project', 'repository', 'reponame'):
-                   dmap[child.tag] = child.text
-            dmap['distribution'] = dmap.pop('name')
-            distlist.append(dmap)
-
-        # pretty printing table
-        headers = ('distribution', 'project', 'repository', 'reponame')
-        maxlen = [len(h) for h in headers]
-        for d in distlist:
-            for i,field in enumerate(headers):
-                maxlen[i] = max(maxlen[i], len(d[field]))
-
-        def format_row(dist, proj, repotype, reponame):
-            result_line_templ = '%-*s  %-*s  %-*s  %-s'
-            return result_line_templ % (
-                maxlen[0], dist,
-                maxlen[1], proj,
-                maxlen[2], repotype,
-                reponame
-                )
-        r.append(format_row('distribution', 'project', 'repository', 'reponame'))
-        r.append(format_row('-'*maxlen[0], '-'*maxlen[1], '-'*maxlen[2], '-'*maxlen[2]))
-        for d in distlist:
-            r.append(format_row(d['distribution'], d['project'], d['repository'], d['reponame']))
-
-    return r
+    distlist = []
+    for node in root.findall('distribution'):
+        dmap = {}
+        for child in node:
+            if child.tag == 'name':
+                dmap['distribution'] = child.text
+            elif child.tag in ('project', 'repository', 'reponame'):
+                dmap[child.tag] = child.text
+        distlist.append(dmap)
+    return distlist
 
 
 # old compat lib call
diff --git a/osc/util/helper.py b/osc/util/helper.py
index 3bb11a72..77ca8d8e 100644
--- a/osc/util/helper.py
+++ b/osc/util/helper.py
@@ -51,3 +51,22 @@ def raw_input(*args):
 
 def _html_escape(data):
     return html.escape(data, quote=False)
+
+
+def format_table(rows, headers):
+    """Format list of tuples into equal width table with headers"""
+    maxlens = [len(h) for h in headers]
+    for r in rows:
+        for i, c in enumerate(r):
+            maxlens[i] = max(maxlens[i], len(c))
+    tpltpl = []
+    for i, m in enumerate(maxlens):
+        tpltpl.append('{%s:<%s}' % (i, m))
+    # {0:12}  {1:7}  {2:10}  {3:8}
+    templ = '  '.join(tpltpl) + '\n'
+
+    out = templ.format(*headers)
+    out += templ.format(*['-'*m for m in maxlens])
+    for r in rows:
+        out += templ.format(*r)
+    return out