diff --git a/README.rst b/README.rst
index 506176941..5558ae3a9 100644
--- a/README.rst
+++ b/README.rst
@@ -83,6 +83,10 @@ Usage
 Let's pretend you want to create a Django project called "redditclone". Rather than using `startproject`
 and then editing the results to include your name, email, and various configuration issues that always get forgotten until the worst possible moment, get cookiecutter_ to do all the work.
 
+Install necessary dependencies (tested on ubuntu 14.04)::
+    $ apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && apt-get dist-upgrade && apt-get install build-essential git 
+    $ pip install pyyaml markupsafe
+
 First, get cookiecutter. Trust me, it's awesome::
 
     $ pip install cookiecutter
diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/install_os_dependencies.sh b/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/install_os_dependencies.sh
index aea9dec45..1c55737e0 100755
--- a/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/install_os_dependencies.sh
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/install_os_dependencies.sh
@@ -1,6 +1,14 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 
-OS_REQUIREMENTS_FILENAME="requirements.apt"
+## Verify that we are running this script on Centos or Ubuntu
+command -v lsb_release >/dev/null 2>&1 || { echo >&2 "This setup script only currently works on Centos and Ubuntu. Aborting."; exit 1; }
+
+## Get the Distribution type from lsb_release
+OS=$(lsb_release -si)
+case "$OS" in
+    CentOS) OS_REQUIREMENTS_FILENAME="requirements.yum";;
+    Ubuntu) OS_REQUIREMENTS_FILENAME="requirements.apt";;
+esac
 
 # Handle call with wrong command
 function wrong_command()
@@ -29,12 +37,18 @@ function list_packages(){
 
 function install()
 {
-    list_packages | xargs apt-get --no-upgrade install -y;
+    case "$OS" in 
+        CentOS) list_packages | xargs yum install -y;;
+        Ubuntu) list_packages | xargs apt-get --no-upgrade install -y;;
+    esac
 }
 
 function upgrade()
 {
-    list_packages | xargs apt-get install -y;
+    case "$OS" in 
+        CentOS) list_packages | xargs yum install -y;;
+        Ubuntu) list_packages | xargs apt-get install -y;;
+    esac
 }
 
 
@@ -51,8 +65,10 @@ function install_or_upgrade()
 
         exit 1
     else
-
-        apt-get update
+        case "$OS" in
+            CentOS) yum update;;
+            Ubuntu) apt-get clean;;
+        esac
 
         # Install the basic compilation dependencies and other required libraries of this project
         if [ "$PARAN" == "install" ]; then
@@ -62,15 +78,16 @@ function install_or_upgrade()
         fi
 
         # cleaning downloaded packages from apt-get cache
-        apt-get clean
-
+        case "$OS" in
+            CentOS) yum clean all;;
+            Ubuntu) apt-get clean;;
+        esac
         exit 0
     fi
 
 
 }
 
-
 # Handle command argument
 case "$1" in
     install) install_or_upgrade;;
@@ -79,4 +96,3 @@ case "$1" in
     help) usage_message;;
     *) wrong_command $1;;
 esac
-
diff --git a/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/requirements.yum b/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/requirements.yum
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..30da5abe1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/{{cookiecutter.repo_name}}/requirements.yum
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+autoconf automake binutils bison flex gcc gcc-c++ gettext libtool make patch pkgconfig redhat-rpm-config rpm-build gettext python-devel zlib-devel nodejs-pg libtiff-devel libtiff libtiff-static libjpeg-turbo libjpeg-turbo-static libjpeg-turbo-devel graphviz-devel python-setuptools python-devel python-virtualenv python-pip firefox libreadline-java sqlite-devel libxml2-python libxml2-static libxml2 libxml2-devel openssl-devel bzip2 wget curl llvm postgresql-server