diff --git a/configure b/configure
index b0834dfaac..11e2fb4f05 100755
--- a/configure
+++ b/configure
@@ -206,6 +206,27 @@ os2="yes"
 *) ;;
 esac
 
+# From mplayer configure. We need TARGET_OS available
+# to the Makefile, so it can distinguish between flavors
+# of AltiVec on PowerPC
+TARGET_OS=`( uname -s ) 2>&1`
+  case "$TARGET_OS" in
+  Linux|FreeBSD|NetBSD|BSD/OS|OpenBSD|SunOS|QNX|Darwin|GNU)
+    ;;
+  IRIX*)
+    TARGET_OS=IRIX
+    ;;
+  HP-UX*)
+    TARGET_OS=HP-UX
+    ;;
+  [cC][yY][gG][wW][iI][nN]*)
+    TARGET_OS=CYGWIN
+    ;;
+  *)
+    TARGET_OS="$TARGET_OS-UNKNOWN"
+    ;;
+  esac
+
 # find source path
 # XXX: we assume an absolute path is given when launching configure, 
 # except in './configure' case.
@@ -617,6 +638,7 @@ echo "LIBPREF=$LIBPREF" >> config.mak
 echo "LIBSUF=$LIBSUF" >> config.mak
 echo "SLIBPREF=$SLIBPREF" >> config.mak
 echo "SLIBSUF=$SLIBSUF" >> config.mak
+echo "TARGET_OS=$TARGET_OS" >> config.mak
 if test "$cpu" = "x86" ; then
   echo "TARGET_ARCH_X86=yes" >> config.mak
   echo "#define ARCH_X86 1" >> $TMPH