diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 9bcbaa3e..ecb3f968 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@ NEWS
   * Fix ipv6 in mod_proxy (fixes #2043)
   * Print errors from include_shell to stderr
   * Set tm.tm_isdst = 0 before mktime() (fixes #2047)
+  * Use linux-epoll by default if available (fixes #2021, thx Olaf van der Spek)
 
 - 1.4.23 - 2009-06-19
   * Added some extra warning options in cmake and fix the resulting warnings (unused/static functions)
diff --git a/src/configfile.c b/src/configfile.c
index a26c0329..3dfc46ee 100644
--- a/src/configfile.c
+++ b/src/configfile.c
@@ -1139,15 +1139,15 @@ int config_set_defaults(server *srv) {
 		 * - select works everywhere
 		 * - linux-* are experimental
 		 */
+#ifdef USE_LINUX_EPOLL
+		{ FDEVENT_HANDLER_LINUX_SYSEPOLL, "linux-sysepoll" },
+#endif
 #ifdef USE_POLL
 		{ FDEVENT_HANDLER_POLL,           "poll" },
 #endif
 #ifdef USE_SELECT
 		{ FDEVENT_HANDLER_SELECT,         "select" },
 #endif
-#ifdef USE_LINUX_EPOLL
-		{ FDEVENT_HANDLER_LINUX_SYSEPOLL, "linux-sysepoll" },
-#endif
 #ifdef USE_LINUX_SIGIO
 		{ FDEVENT_HANDLER_LINUX_RTSIG,    "linux-rtsig" },
 #endif