diff --git a/mps/.travis.yml b/mps/.travis.yml
index 039164a0684..69a1b840135 100644
--- a/mps/.travis.yml
+++ b/mps/.travis.yml
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@ notifications:
     - mps-travis@ravenbrook.com
   irc: "irc.freenode.net#memorypoolsystem"
 before_install:
-  - test "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" = "linux" && sudo apt-get -qq update
-  - test "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" = "linux" && sudo apt-get install -y gcc-4.7
+  - if test "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" = "linux"; then sudo apt-get -qq update; fi
+  - if test "$TRAVIS_OS_NAME" = "linux"; then sudo apt-get install -y gcc-4.8; fi
 script:
   - ./configure --prefix=$PWD/prefix && make install && make test