diff --git a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cmake/package.py b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cmake/package.py
index 83a68fda075..93bdb720500 100644
--- a/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cmake/package.py
+++ b/var/spack/repos/builtin/packages/cmake/package.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ class Cmake(Package):
     version('3.0.2',    'db4c687a31444a929d2fdc36c4dfb95f')
     version('2.8.10.2', '097278785da7182ec0aea8769d06860c')
 
-    variant('ownlibs', default=False, description='Use CMake-provided third-party libraries')
+    variant('ownlibs', default=True, description='Use CMake-provided third-party libraries')
     variant('qt',      default=False, description='Enables the build of cmake-gui')
     variant('doc',     default=False, description='Enables the generation of html and man page documentation')
     variant('openssl', default=True,  description="Enables CMake's OpenSSL features")