diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/__init__.py b/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/linux_distro.py b/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/linux_distro.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..30a85fe61c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/linux_distro.py
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+import platform as py_platform
+import spack
+from spack.architecture import Platform, OperatingSystem
+
+class LinuxDistro(OperatingSystem):
+    """ This class will represent the autodetected operating system
+        for a Linux System. Since there are many different flavors of
+        Linux, this class will attempt to encompass them all through
+        autodetection using the python module platform and the method
+        platform.dist()
+    """
+    def __init__(self):
+        def detect_operating_system():
+            name = py_platform.dist()[0]
+            version = py_platform.dist()[1]
+            return name, version
+
+        name, version = detect_operating_system()
+            
+        super(LinuxDistro, self).__init__(name, version)
+    
+    @property
+    def compiler_strategy(self):
+        return "PATH"
+
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/mac_osx.py b/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/mac_osx.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..0b939a5546
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/operating_system/mac_osx.py
@@ -0,0 +1,45 @@
+""" This class represents the MAC_OSX operating system. This will be auto
+    detected using the python platform.mac_ver. The MAC_OSX platform
+    will be represented using the major version operating system name, i.e
+    el capitan, yosemite...etc.
+"""
+
+import spack
+import os
+import platform as py_platform
+from spack.architecture import Platform, OperatingSystem
+
+class MacOSX(OperatingSystem):
+    def __init__(self):
+        """ Autodetects the mac version from a dictionary. Goes back as
+            far as 10.6 snowleopard. If the user has an older mac then
+            the version will just be a generic mac_os.
+        """
+        
+        def get_mac_release():
+            mac_releases = {'10.6': "snowleopard", 
+                            "10.7": "lion",
+                            "10.8": "mountainlion",
+                            "10.9": "mavericks",
+                            "10.10": "yosemite",
+                            "10.11": "elcapitan"}     
+
+            mac_ver = py_platform.mac_ver()[0][:-2]
+            try:
+                name = mac_releases[mac_ver]
+                return name, mac_ver
+            except KeyError:
+                name = "mac_os"
+                return name, mac_ver
+
+        name, version = get_mac_release()
+
+        super(MacOSX, self).__init__(name, version)
+
+    @property
+    def compiler_strategy(self):
+        return "PATH"
+
+
+
+