diff --git a/mac/Info.plist b/mac/Info.plist
index e50e38dbc..cfb43a9f1 100755
--- a/mac/Info.plist
+++ b/mac/Info.plist
@@ -26,5 +26,7 @@
     <string>Copyright 1997 - 2016 The Gramps Team, GNU General Public License.</string>
     <key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>
     <string>10.5</string>
+    <key>GtkOSXLaunchScriptFile</key>
+    <string>gramps_launcher.py</string>
 </dict>
 </plist>
diff --git a/mac/gramps.bundle b/mac/gramps.bundle
index ac3962f77..5519485dc 100644
--- a/mac/gramps.bundle
+++ b/mac/gramps.bundle
@@ -5,23 +5,23 @@
     <prefix name="default">${env:JHBUILD_PREFIX}</prefix>
     <destination overwrite="yes">${env:HOME}/Desktop</destination>
     <run-install-name-tool/>
-    <launcher-script>${project}/gramps.launcher</launcher-script >
+
     <!-- Indicate the active gtk version to use. This is needed only
 	 for gtk+-3.0 projects. -->
     <gtk>gtk+-3.0</gtk>
   </meta>
 
   <plist>${project}/Info.plist</plist>
-  <!-- We have to have this, but the result is ignored. -->
+  <!-- Build gramps-launcher with:
+          gcc -L$PREFIX `python-config --cflags --ldflags` \
+              -o $PREFIX/bin/gramps-launcher \
+	      path/to/gtk-mac-bundler/examples/python-launcher.c
+       with the obvious substitution.
+  -->
  <main-binary>
-     ${prefix}/bin/gramps
+     ${prefix}/bin/gramps-launcher
   </main-binary>
 
-  <!-- We need to pack our own Python to avoid compatibility problems. -->
-  <binary dest="${bundle}/Contents/MacOS">
-    ${prefix}/bin/python
-  </binary>
-
   <!-- Copy in GTK+ modules. Note the use of the
        "${pkg:module:variable}" macro, which evaluates to a pkg-config
        variable in the specified module. Note that any libraries that
@@ -128,6 +128,10 @@
     ${prefix}/share/locale
   </translations>
 
+  <!-- Our launcher script isn't a shell script any more, and our binary really is a binary. -->
+  <data dest="${bundle}/Contents/Resources">
+    ${project}/gramps_launcher.py
+  </data>
 
   <!-- We have to pull in the python modules, which are mixed python
        and loadable modules.  -->
diff --git a/mac/gramps.launcher b/mac/gramps.launcher
deleted file mode 100755
index 024c86944..000000000
--- a/mac/gramps.launcher
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,50 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-name="`basename $0`"
-tmp="$0"
-tmp=`dirname "$tmp"`
-tmp=`dirname "$tmp"`
-bundle=`dirname "$tmp"`
-bundle_contents="$bundle"/Contents
-bundle_res="$bundle_contents"/Resources
-bundle_lib="$bundle_res"/lib
-bundle_bin="$bundle_res"/bin
-bundle_data="$bundle_res"/share
-bundle_etc="$bundle_res"/etc
-
-export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$bundle_data"
-
-export PATH="$bundle_contents"/MacOS:/bin:/usr/bin
-export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$bundle_lib"
-export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="$DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH"
-export GTK_DATA_PREFIX="$bundle_res"
-export GTK_EXE_PREFIX="$bundle_res"
-export GTK_PATH="$bundle_res"
-
-export PANGO_RC_FILE="$bundle_etc/pango/pangorc"
-export PANGO_SYSCONFDIR="$bundle_etc"
-export PANGO_LIBDIR="$bundle_lib"
-export GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE="$bundle_lib/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders.cache"
-if [ `uname -r | cut -d . -f 1` -ge 10 ]; then
-    export GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE="$bundle_etc/gtk-3.0/gtk.immodules"
-fi
-export GI_TYPELIB_PATH="$bundle_lib/girepository-1.0"
-export GVBINDIR="$bundle_lib/graphviz"
-export ENCHANT_MODULE_PATH="$bundle_lib/enchant"
-
-#Set $PYTHON to point inside the bundle
-PYVER=3.4
-export PYTHON="$bundle_contents/MacOS/python"
-export PYTHONHOME="$bundle_res"
-
-export GRAMPSDIR="$bundle_lib/python$PYVER/site-packages/gramps"
-export GRAMPSI18N="$bundle_data"/locale
-export GRAMPS_RESOURCES="$bundle_data"
-export USERPROFILE="$HOME"
-export APPDATA="$HOME/Library/Application Support"
-
-# Strip out the argument added by the OS.
-if /bin/expr "x$1" : '^x-psn_' > /dev/null; then
-    shift 1
-fi
-exec "$PYTHON" -O "$bundle_contents/MacOS/Gramps-bin" "$@"
-
diff --git a/mac/gramps_launcher.py b/mac/gramps_launcher.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..8e4f00988
--- /dev/null
+++ b/mac/gramps_launcher.py
@@ -0,0 +1,49 @@
+from os.path import join, dirname, abspath, normpath
+from os import environ
+from sys import argv, version
+from platform import release
+
+
+bundlepath = argv[0]
+
+bundle_contents = join(bundlepath, 'Contents')
+bundle_res = join(bundle_contents, 'Resources')
+
+bundle_lib = join(bundle_res, 'lib')
+bundle_bin = join(bundle_res, 'bin')
+bundle_data = join(bundle_res, 'share')
+bundle_etc = join(bundle_res, 'etc')
+
+environ['XDG_DATA_DIRS'] = bundle_data
+environ['DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH'] = bundle_lib
+environ['LD_LIBRARY_PATH'] = bundle_lib
+environ['GTK_DATA_PREFIX'] = bundle_res
+environ['GTK_EXE_PREFIX'] = bundle_res
+environ['GTK_PATH'] = bundle_res
+
+environ['PANGO_RC_FILE'] = join(bundle_etc, 'pango', 'pangorc')
+environ['PANGO_SYSCONFDIR'] = bundle_etc
+environ['PANGO_LIBDIR'] = bundle_lib
+environ['GDK_PIXBUF_MODULE_FILE'] = join(bundle_lib, 'gdk-pixbuf-2.0',
+                                                '2.10.0', 'loaders.cache')
+if int(release().split('.')[0]) > 10:
+    environ['GTK_IM_MODULE_FILE'] = join(bundle_etc, 'gtk-3.0',
+                                            'gtk.immodules')
+
+environ['GI_TYPELIB_PATH'] = join(bundle_lib, 'girepository-1.0')
+environ['GVBINDIR'] = join(bundle_lib, 'graphviz')
+environ['ENCHANT_MODULE_PATH'] = join(bundle_lib, 'enchant')
+
+#Set $PYTHON to point inside the bundle
+PYVER = 'python' + version[:3]
+
+environ['GRAMPSDIR'] = join (bundle_lib, PYVER, 'site-packages', 'gramps')
+environ['GRAMPSI18N'] = join(bundle_data, 'locale')
+environ['GRAMPS_RESOURCES'] = bundle_data
+environ['USERPROFILE'] = environ['HOME']
+environ['APPDATA'] = join(environ['HOME'], 'Library', 'Application Support')
+environ['PATH'] = join(bundle_contents, 'MacOS') + ':' + environ['PATH']
+
+import gramps.grampsapp as app
+app.main()
+