diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/Hudson.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/Hudson.java
index a30487d9f5d2d9775cd3d1cb1a20c29774a49279..3e7dbcf06453bddde62d8ab1fd8da70976c23620 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/Hudson.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/model/Hudson.java
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@ import hudson.scm.RepositoryBrowsers;
 import hudson.scm.SCM;
 import hudson.scm.SCMDescriptor;
 import hudson.scm.SCMS;
+import hudson.scm.SubversionWorkspaceSelector;
 import hudson.search.CollectionSearchIndex;
 import hudson.search.SearchIndexBuilder;
 import hudson.security.ACL;
@@ -84,6 +85,7 @@ import org.kohsuke.stapler.StaplerProxy;
 import org.kohsuke.stapler.StaplerRequest;
 import org.kohsuke.stapler.StaplerResponse;
 import org.kohsuke.stapler.export.Exported;
+import org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc.admin.SVNAdminAreaFactory;
 
 import javax.servlet.ServletContext;
 import javax.servlet.ServletException;
@@ -343,6 +345,9 @@ public final class Hudson extends View implements ItemGroup<TopLevelItem>, Node,
             LOGGER.log(Level.SEVERE, "Failed to load proxy configuration", e);
         }
 
+        // do this before we load plugins so that plugins can change the selector.
+        SVNAdminAreaFactory.setSelector(new SubversionWorkspaceSelector());
+
         // load plugins.
         pluginManager = new PluginManager(context);
 
diff --git a/core/src/main/java/hudson/scm/SubversionWorkspaceSelector.java b/core/src/main/java/hudson/scm/SubversionWorkspaceSelector.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9d5685a3abe29be1c0c8879695d9dd26010d463e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/core/src/main/java/hudson/scm/SubversionWorkspaceSelector.java
@@ -0,0 +1,47 @@
+package hudson.scm;
+
+import org.tmatesoft.svn.core.SVNException;
+import org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc.admin.ISVNAdminAreaFactorySelector;
+import org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc.admin.SVNAdminArea14;
+import org.tmatesoft.svn.core.internal.wc.admin.SVNAdminAreaFactory;
+
+import java.io.File;
+import java.util.ArrayList;
+import java.util.Collection;
+
+/**
+ * {@link ISVNAdminAreaFactorySelector} that uses 1.4 compatible workspace for new check out,
+ * but still supports 1.5 workspace, if asked to work with it.
+ *
+ * <p>
+ * Since there are many tools out there that still don't support Subversion 1.5 (including
+ * all the major Unix distributions that haven't bundled Subversion 1.5), using 1.4 as the
+ * default would reduce the likelihood of the user running into "this SVN client can't work
+ * with this workspace version..." problem when using other SVN tools.
+ *
+ * <p>
+ * The primary scenario of this is the use of command-line SVN client, either from shell
+ * script, Ant, or Maven.
+ *
+ * @author Kohsuke Kawaguchi
+ */
+public class SubversionWorkspaceSelector implements ISVNAdminAreaFactorySelector {
+    public SubversionWorkspaceSelector() {
+        // don't upgrade the workspace.
+        SVNAdminAreaFactory.setUpgradeEnabled(false);
+    }
+
+    @SuppressWarnings({"cast", "unchecked"})
+    public Collection getEnabledFactories(File path, Collection factories, boolean writeAccess) throws SVNException {
+        if(!writeAccess)    // for reading, use all our available factories
+            return factories;
+
+        // for writing, use 1.4
+        Collection<SVNAdminAreaFactory> enabledFactories = new ArrayList<SVNAdminAreaFactory>();
+        for (SVNAdminAreaFactory factory : (Collection<SVNAdminAreaFactory>)factories)
+            if (factory.getSupportedVersion() == SVNAdminArea14.WC_FORMAT)
+                enabledFactories.add(factory);
+
+        return enabledFactories;
+    }
+}