diff --git a/plinth/utils.py b/plinth/utils.py
index 512755193..5c5562500 100644
--- a/plinth/utils.py
+++ b/plinth/utils.py
@@ -24,10 +24,13 @@ import os
 import random
 import re
 import string
+from distutils.version import LooseVersion
 
 import ruamel.yaml
 from django.utils.functional import lazy
 
+Version = LooseVersion  # Abstraction over distutils.version.LooseVersion
+
 
 def import_from_gi(library, version):
     """Import and return a GObject introspection library."""