diff --git a/bindings/java/src/org/hyperic/sigar/OperatingSystem.java b/bindings/java/src/org/hyperic/sigar/OperatingSystem.java
index ccc90818..d749fc7d 100644
--- a/bindings/java/src/org/hyperic/sigar/OperatingSystem.java
+++ b/bindings/java/src/org/hyperic/sigar/OperatingSystem.java
@@ -18,17 +18,12 @@
 
 package org.hyperic.sigar;
 
-import java.io.IOException;
-import java.io.File;
-import java.io.FileReader;
-
 import java.util.Arrays;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.Map;
 import java.util.Properties;
-import java.util.StringTokenizer;
 
-public class OperatingSystem {
+public class OperatingSystem extends SysInfo {
 
     public static final String NAME_LINUX   = "Linux";
     public static final String NAME_SOLARIS = "Solaris";
@@ -79,29 +74,8 @@ public class OperatingSystem {
         return OperatingSystem.NAME_WIN32.equals(name);
     }
     
-    private static final int TYPE_LINUX   = 0;
-    private static final int TYPE_SOLARIS = 1;
-    private static final int TYPE_HPUX    = 2;
-    private static final int TYPE_AIX     = 3;
-    private static final int TYPE_MACOSX  = 4;
-    private static final int TYPE_FREEBSD = 5;
-    private static final int TYPE_WIN32   = 6;
-    private static final int TYPE_NETWARE = 7;
-
-    private static final String ETC =
-        System.getProperty("sigar.etc.dir", "/etc") + "/";
-
     private static OperatingSystem instance = null;
 
-    private int type;
-    private String name;
-    private String version;
-    private String arch;
-    private String patchLevel;
-    private String vendor;
-    private String vendorVersion;
-    private String vendorName;
-    private String vendorCodeName;
     private String dataModel;
     private String cpuEndian;
     
@@ -110,165 +84,25 @@ public class OperatingSystem {
 
     public static synchronized OperatingSystem getInstance() {
         if (instance == null) {
+            Sigar sigar = new Sigar();
             OperatingSystem os = new OperatingSystem();
+            try {
+                os.gather(sigar);
+            } catch (SigarException e) {
+                throw new IllegalStateException(e.getMessage());
+            } finally {
+                sigar.close();
+            }
             Properties props = System.getProperties();
-            os.name = props.getProperty("os.name");
-            os.vendorName = os.name;
-            os.version = props.getProperty("os.version");
-            os.arch = props.getProperty("os.arch");
-            os.patchLevel = props.getProperty("sun.os.patch.level");
             os.dataModel = props.getProperty("sun.arch.data.model");
             os.cpuEndian = props.getProperty("sun.cpu.endian");
 
-            if (os.name.equals(NAME_LINUX)) {
-                os.type = TYPE_LINUX;
-                os.getLinuxInfo();
-            }
-            else if (IS_WIN32) {
-                os.type = TYPE_WIN32;
-                os.vendor = "Microsoft";
-                if (os.name.endsWith("XP")) {
-                    os.vendorVersion = "XP";
-                }
-                else if (os.name.indexOf("2003") != -1) {
-                    os.vendorVersion = "2003";
-                }
-                else if (os.name.indexOf("2000") != -1) {
-                    os.vendorVersion = "2000";
-                }
-                else if (os.name.indexOf("NT") != -1) {
-                    os.vendorVersion = "NT";
-                }
-                os.name = "Win32";
-                if (os.vendorVersion.equals("XP")) {
-                    os.vendorCodeName = "Whistler";
-                }
-                else if (os.vendorVersion.equals("2003")) {
-                    os.vendorCodeName = "Whistler Server";
-                }
-            }
-            else if (os.name.equals("SunOS")) {
-                os.type = TYPE_SOLARIS;
-                os.vendor = "Sun Microsystems";
-                if (os.version.equals("5.6")) {
-                    os.vendorVersion = "2.6";
-                }
-                else {
-                    int ix = os.version.indexOf(".");
-                    //5.8 == solaris 8, etc.
-                    os.vendorVersion = os.version.substring(ix+1);
-                }
-                os.name = NAME_SOLARIS;
-            }
-            else if (os.name.equals("HP-UX")) {
-                os.type = TYPE_HPUX;
-                os.name = NAME_HPUX;
-                os.vendor = "Hewlett-Packard";
-                if (os.version.indexOf(".11.") != -1) {
-                    os.vendorVersion = "11";
-                }
-            }
-            else if (os.name.equals(NAME_AIX)) {
-                os.type = TYPE_AIX;
-                os.vendor = "IBM";
-            }
-            else if (os.name.equals("Mac OS X")) {
-                os.type = TYPE_MACOSX;
-                os.name = NAME_MACOSX;
-                os.vendor = "Apple";
-                if (os.version.startsWith("10.4")) {
-                    os.vendorCodeName = "Tiger";
-                }
-                else if (os.version.startsWith("10.3")) {
-                    os.vendorCodeName = "Panther";
-                }
-            }
-            else if (os.name.equals(NAME_FREEBSD)) {
-                os.type = TYPE_FREEBSD;
-                os.vendor = NAME_FREEBSD;
-            }
-            else if (os.name.equals(NAME_NETWARE)) {
-                os.type = TYPE_NETWARE;
-                os.vendor = "Novell";
-                os.vendorVersion = os.version.substring(0, 3);
-            }
-            else {
-                os.vendor = "Unknown";
-            }
-
-            if (os.vendorVersion == null) {
-                os.vendorVersion = os.version;
-            }
-
             instance = os;
         }
 
         return instance;
     }
 
-    public String getDescription() {
-        switch (this.type) {
-          case TYPE_LINUX:
-            //"Red Hat 8.0"
-            return this.vendor + " " + this.vendorVersion;
-          case TYPE_SOLARIS:
-            //"Solaris 8"
-            return this.name + " " + this.vendorVersion;
-          case TYPE_HPUX:
-            //"HP-UX 11"
-            return this.vendorName + " " + this.vendorVersion;
-          case TYPE_MACOSX:
-            //"Mac OS X Tiger"
-            if (this.vendorCodeName != null) {
-                return this.vendorName + " " + this.vendorCodeName;
-            }
-            else {
-                return this.vendorName;
-            }
-          case TYPE_WIN32:
-            //"Microsoft Windows 2003"
-            return this.vendor + " Windows " + this.vendorVersion;
-          case TYPE_NETWARE:
-            //"NetWare 6.0"
-            return this.name + " " + this.vendorVersion;
-          default:
-            //"AIX 5.2", "FreeBSD 5.3"
-            return this.name + " " + this.version;
-        }
-    }
-
-    public String getName() {
-        return this.name;
-    }
-
-    public String getVersion() {
-        return this.version;
-    }
-
-    public String getArch() {
-        return this.arch;
-    }
-
-    public String getPatchLevel() {
-        return this.patchLevel;
-    }
-
-    public String getVendor() {
-        return this.vendor;
-    }
-
-    public String getVendorVersion() {
-        return this.vendorVersion;
-    }
-
-    public String getVendorName() {
-        return this.vendorName;
-    }
-
-    public String getVendorCodeName() {
-        return this.vendorCodeName;
-    }
-
     public String getDataModel() {
         return this.dataModel;
     }
@@ -277,162 +111,6 @@ public class OperatingSystem {
         return this.cpuEndian;
     }
 
-    private void getLinuxInfo() {
-        VendorInfo[] info = {
-            new GenericVendor("mandrake-release", "Mandrake"),
-            new GenericVendor("SuSE-release", "SuSE"),
-            new GenericVendor("gentoo-release", "Gentoo"),
-            new GenericVendor("debian_version", "Debian"),
-            new GenericVendor("slackware-version", "Slackware"),
-            new GenericVendor("fedora-release", "Fedora"),
-            new RedHatVendor("redhat-release", "Red Hat"),
-            new VMwareVendor("/proc/vmware/version", "VMware"),
-            new UbuntuVendor("lsb-release", "Ubuntu"),
-        };
-
-        for (int i=0; i<info.length; i++) {
-            File file = new File(info[i].getFileName());
-            if (!file.exists()) {
-                continue;
-            }
-
-            FileReader reader = null;
-            try {
-                int len = (int)file.length();
-                char[] data = new char[len];
-                reader = new FileReader(file);
-                reader.read(data, 0, len);
-                info[i].parse(new String(data), this);
-            } catch (IOException e) {
-            } finally {
-                if (reader != null) {
-                    try {
-                        reader.close();
-                    } catch (IOException e) { }
-                }
-            }
-            break;
-        }
-    }
-
-    private static String parseVersion(String line) {
-        StringTokenizer tok = new StringTokenizer(line);
-        while (tok.hasMoreTokens()) {
-            String s = tok.nextToken();
-            if (Character.isDigit(s.charAt(0))) {
-                int i;
-                for (i=1; i<s.length(); i++) {
-                    char c = s.charAt(i);
-                    if (!(Character.isDigit(c) || (c == '.'))) {
-                        break;
-                    }
-                }
-                return s.substring(0, i);
-            }
-        }
-        return null;
-    }
-
-    private interface VendorInfo {
-        public String getFileName();
-
-        public void parse(String data, OperatingSystem os);
-    }
-
-    private class RedHatVendor extends GenericVendor {
-        public RedHatVendor(String file, String name) {
-            super(file, name);
-        }
-
-        public void parse(String line, OperatingSystem os) {
-            super.parse(line, os);
-
-            int ix = line.indexOf("(");
-            if (ix != -1) {
-                String codeName = line.substring(ix+1);
-                ix = codeName.indexOf(")");
-                codeName = codeName.substring(0, ix);
-                if (!"Final".equals(codeName)) {
-                    os.vendorCodeName = codeName;
-                }
-            }
-
-            String token = "Red Hat Enterprise Linux ";
-
-            if (line.startsWith(token)) {
-                line = line.substring(token.length());
-                ix = line.indexOf(" "); //'AS' or 'ES'
-                os.vendorVersion =
-                    line.substring(0, ix) + " " + os.vendorVersion;
-            }
-            else if (line.startsWith("CentOS")) {
-                os.vendor = "CentOS";
-            }
-        }
-    }
-
-    private class VMwareVendor extends GenericVendor {
-        public VMwareVendor(String file, String name) {
-            super(file, name);
-        }
-
-        public String getFileName() {
-            return this.file;
-        }
-
-        public void parse(String line, OperatingSystem os) {
-            os.vendor = this.name;
-            os.vendorVersion = "ESX 2.x"; //XXX
-        }
-    }
-
-    private class UbuntuVendor extends GenericVendor {
-        public UbuntuVendor(String file, String name) {
-            super(file, name);
-        }
-
-        public void parse(String line, OperatingSystem os) {
-            int ix;
-            while ((ix = line.indexOf("\n")) != -1) {
-                String ent = line.substring(0, ix);
-                line = line.substring(ix+1);
-
-                if ((ix = ent.indexOf("=")) != -1) {
-                    String key = ent.substring(0, ix);
-                    String val = ent.substring(ix+1);
-                    if (key.equals("DISTRIB_ID")) {
-                        os.vendor = val;
-                    }
-                    else if (key.equals("DISTRIB_RELEASE")) {
-                        os.vendorVersion = val;
-                    }
-                    else if (key.equals("DISTRIB_CODENAME")) {
-                        os.vendorCodeName = val;
-                    }
-                }
-            }
-        }
-    }
-
-    private class GenericVendor implements VendorInfo {
-        protected String file;
-        protected String name;
-
-        public GenericVendor(String file, String name) {
-            this.file = file;
-            this.name = name;
-        }
-
-        public String getFileName() {
-            return ETC + this.file;
-        }
-
-        public void parse(String line, OperatingSystem os) {
-            os.vendor = this.name;
-            os.vendorVersion = parseVersion(line);
-        }
-    }
-
     public static void main(String[] args) {
         System.out.println("all.............." + Arrays.asList(NAMES));
         OperatingSystem os = OperatingSystem.getInstance();