diff --git a/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/domain/OsFamily.java b/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/domain/OsFamily.java
index e411580ec3..b525c29ef2 100644
--- a/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/domain/OsFamily.java
+++ b/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/domain/OsFamily.java
@@ -21,11 +21,16 @@ import static com.google.common.base.Preconditions.checkNotNull;
 import static com.google.common.base.CaseFormat.LOWER_HYPHEN;
 import static com.google.common.base.CaseFormat.UPPER_UNDERSCORE;
 
+import java.util.Arrays;
+
+import com.google.common.base.Predicate;
+import com.google.common.collect.FluentIterable;
+
 /**
  * Running Operating system
  */
 public enum OsFamily {
-   UNRECOGNIZED, AIX, ALPINE, ARCH, CENTOS, DARWIN, DEBIAN, ESX, FEDORA, FREEBSD, GENTOO, HPUX, LINUX, COREOS, 
+   UNRECOGNIZED(false), AIX, ALPINE, ARCH, CENTOS, DARWIN, DEBIAN, ESX, FEDORA, FREEBSD, GENTOO, HPUX, LINUX(false), COREOS,
    /**
     * @see <a href="http://smartos.org">SmartOS</a>
     */
@@ -48,6 +53,16 @@ public enum OsFamily {
     */
    GCEL, SIGAR, SLACKWARE, SOLARIS, SUSE, TURBOLINUX, CLOUD_LINUX, UBUNTU, WINDOWS;
 
+   private final boolean prioritise;
+
+   OsFamily() {
+      this.prioritise = true;
+   }
+
+   OsFamily(boolean prioritise) {
+      this.prioritise = prioritise;
+   }
+
    public String value() {
       return UPPER_UNDERSCORE.to(LOWER_HYPHEN, name());
    }
@@ -57,6 +72,10 @@ public enum OsFamily {
       return value();
    }
 
+   public boolean shouldPrioritise() {
+      return prioritise;
+   }
+
    public static OsFamily fromValue(String osFamily) {
       try {
          return valueOf(LOWER_HYPHEN.to(UPPER_UNDERSCORE, checkNotNull(osFamily, "osFamily")));
@@ -64,4 +83,21 @@ public enum OsFamily {
          return UNRECOGNIZED;
       }
    }
+
+   private static Predicate<OsFamily> predicateOnShouldPrioritise(final boolean prioritise) {
+      return new Predicate<OsFamily>() {
+         @Override
+         public boolean apply(OsFamily osFamily) {
+            return osFamily.shouldPrioritise() == prioritise;
+         }
+      };
+   }
+
+   public static OsFamily[] proritisedValues() {
+      return FluentIterable.from(Arrays.asList(values())).filter(predicateOnShouldPrioritise(true)).toArray(OsFamily.class);
+   }
+
+   public static OsFamily[] nonProritisedValues() {
+      return FluentIterable.from(Arrays.asList(values())).filter(predicateOnShouldPrioritise(false)).toArray(OsFamily.class);
+   }
 }
diff --git a/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java b/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java
index b9333a597d..1d1cf95f2f 100644
--- a/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java
+++ b/compute/src/main/java/org/jclouds/compute/util/ComputeServiceUtils.java
@@ -140,7 +140,15 @@ public class ComputeServiceUtils {
 
    public static org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily parseOsFamilyOrUnrecognized(String in) {
       org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily myOs = null;
-      for (org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily os : org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily.values()) {
+      for (org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily os : org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily.proritisedValues()) {
+         if (in.toLowerCase().replaceAll("\\s", "").indexOf(os.toString()) != -1) {
+            myOs = os;
+         }
+      }
+      if (myOs != null) {
+         return myOs;
+      }
+      for (org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily os : org.jclouds.compute.domain.OsFamily.nonProritisedValues()) {
          if (in.toLowerCase().replaceAll("\\s", "").indexOf(os.toString()) != -1) {
             myOs = os;
          }