diff --git a/obs-service-set_version.changes b/obs-service-set_version.changes
index 75f1943..aecbcff 100644
--- a/obs-service-set_version.changes
+++ b/obs-service-set_version.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Tue Oct 10 07:39:43 UTC 2017 - dmueller@suse.com
+
+- switch to python3 for less ancient distros
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Tue Sep 19 12:26:06 UTC 2017 - opensuse-packaging@opensuse.org
 
diff --git a/obs-service-set_version.spec b/obs-service-set_version.spec
index 80731f6..b53741c 100644
--- a/obs-service-set_version.spec
+++ b/obs-service-set_version.spec
@@ -27,8 +27,12 @@ Group:          Development/Tools/Building
 Url:            https://github.com/openSUSE/obs-service-%{service}
 Source:         %{name}-%{version}.tar.gz
 %if 0%{?suse_version}
+%if 0%{?suse_version} > 1315
+Recommends:     python3-packaging
+%else
 Recommends:     python-packaging
 %endif
+%endif
 Requires:       sed
 BuildRoot:      %{_tmppath}/%{name}-%{version}-build
 BuildArch:      noarch
@@ -43,6 +47,9 @@ a given version or to the existing files.
 %setup -q
 
 %build
+%if 0%{?suse_version} > 1315
+sed -i -e "1 s,#!/usr/bin/python$,#!/usr/bin/python3," set_version
+%endif
 
 %install
 mkdir -p %{buildroot}%{_prefix}/lib/obs/service