diff --git a/src/bootstrap/bootstrap.py b/src/bootstrap/bootstrap.py
index fdd87844..74759dcf 100644
--- a/src/bootstrap/bootstrap.py
+++ b/src/bootstrap/bootstrap.py
@@ -76,24 +76,16 @@ def download(path, url, probably_big, verbose):
 def _download(path, url, probably_big, verbose, exception):
     if probably_big or verbose:
         print("downloading {}".format(url))
-    # see http://serverfault.com/questions/301128/how-to-download
-    if sys.platform == 'win32':
-        run(["PowerShell.exe", "/nologo", "-Command",
-             "(New-Object System.Net.WebClient)"
-             ".DownloadFile('{}', '{}')".format(url, path)],
-            verbose=verbose,
-            exception=exception)
+    if sys.version_info[0] == 3:
+        import urllib.request
+        response=urllib.request.urlopen(url)
+    elif sys.version_info[0] == 2:
+        import urllib
+        response=urllib.urlopen(url)
     else:
-        if probably_big or verbose:
-            option = "-#"
-        else:
-            option = "-s"
-        run(["curl", option,
-             "-y", "30", "-Y", "10",    # timeout if speed is < 10 bytes/sec for > 30 seconds
-             "--connect-timeout", "30", # timeout if cannot connect within 30 seconds
-             "--retry", "3", "-Sf", "-o", path, url],
-            verbose=verbose,
-            exception=exception)
+        raise Exception("Unsupported python version")
+    with open(path,"wb") as fp:
+        fp.write(response.read())
 
 
 def verify(path, sha_path, verbose):