diff --git a/cmake_support/OST.cmake b/cmake_support/OST.cmake
index 3456bc0dc3eec871c172798e790f33fc00744d36..61f57a272a28e8fea07812524a193172a91f01fb 100644
--- a/cmake_support/OST.cmake
+++ b/cmake_support/OST.cmake
@@ -323,13 +323,8 @@ macro(executable)
     if (UNIX AND NOT APPLE)
       set_target_properties(${_ARG_NAME} PROPERTIES LINK_SEARCH_START_STATIC TRUE)
       set_target_properties(${_ARG_NAME} PROPERTIES LINK_SEARCH_END_STATIC TRUE)
-      if (OST_GCC_LESS_45)
-        set_target_properties(${_ARG_NAME} PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS
-                              "-static-libgcc -static -pthread")
-      else()
-        set_target_properties(${_ARG_NAME} PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS
-                              "-static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -static -pthread")
-      endif()
+      set_target_properties(${_ARG_NAME} PROPERTIES LINK_FLAGS
+                            "-static-libgcc -static-libstdc++ -static -pthread")
     endif()
   endif()
   install(TARGETS ${_ARG_NAME} DESTINATION bin)
@@ -885,21 +880,6 @@ macro(setup_stage)
 
 endmacro()
 
-#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-# get compiler version
-#-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-function(get_compiler_version _OUTPUT_VERSION)
-  exec_program(${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER}
-               ARGS ${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ARG1} -dumpfullversion -dumpversion
-               OUTPUT_VARIABLE _COMPILER_VERSION
-  )
-  string(REGEX REPLACE "([0-9])\\.([0-9])(\\.[0-9])?" "\\1\\2"
-    _COMPILER_VERSION ${_COMPILER_VERSION})
-
-  set(${_OUTPUT_VERSION} ${_COMPILER_VERSION} PARENT_SCOPE)
-endfunction()
-
-
 
 macro(setup_compiler_flags)
   if (WIN32)
@@ -918,25 +898,11 @@ macro(setup_compiler_flags)
 
 
   if (CMAKE_COMPILER_IS_GNUCXX)
-    get_compiler_version(_GCC_VERSION)
     set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -Wall" )
-    if (_GCC_VERSION MATCHES "44")
-      # gcc 4.4. is very strict about aliasing rules. the shared_count
-      # implementation that is used boost's shared_ptr violates these rules. To
-      # silence the warnings and prevent miscompiles, enable
-      #  -fno-strict-aliasing
-      set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -fno-strict-aliasing" )
-    endif()
-    #message(STATUS "GCC VERSION " ${_GCC_VERSION})
-    if (_GCC_VERSION LESS "60")
+    if ("${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION}" VERSION_LESS "6.0")
       # for older compilers we need to enable C++11 for Qt5
       set(CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS "${CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS} -std=c++11")
     endif()
-    if (_GCC_VERSION LESS "45")
-      set(OST_GCC_LESS_45 true)
-    else()
-      set(OST_GCC_LESS_45 false)
-    endif()
   endif()
 endmacro()
 set(_BOOST_MIN_VERSION 1.31)