diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index b049d4a0..31c1c4ea 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -1200,6 +1200,15 @@ dependencies = [
  "digest",
 ]
 
+[[package]]
+name = "home"
+version = "0.5.9"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "e3d1354bf6b7235cb4a0576c2619fd4ed18183f689b12b006a0ee7329eeff9a5"
+dependencies = [
+ "windows-sys 0.52.0",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "html-escape"
 version = "0.2.13"
@@ -2320,6 +2329,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "tracing",
  "tracing-test",
  "url",
+ "which",
  "zip",
 ]
 
@@ -3668,6 +3678,19 @@ version = "0.25.4"
 source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
 checksum = "5f20c57d8d7db6d3b86154206ae5d8fba62dd39573114de97c2cb0578251f8e1"
 
+[[package]]
+name = "which"
+version = "6.0.0"
+source = "registry+https://github.com/rust-lang/crates.io-index"
+checksum = "7fa5e0c10bf77f44aac573e498d1a82d5fbd5e91f6fc0a99e7be4b38e85e101c"
+dependencies = [
+ "either",
+ "home",
+ "once_cell",
+ "rustix",
+ "windows-sys 0.52.0",
+]
+
 [[package]]
 name = "winapi"
 version = "0.3.9"
diff --git a/crates/rattler_installs_packages/Cargo.toml b/crates/rattler_installs_packages/Cargo.toml
index 18e84471..b6949bac 100644
--- a/crates/rattler_installs_packages/Cargo.toml
+++ b/crates/rattler_installs_packages/Cargo.toml
@@ -71,6 +71,7 @@ async-recursion = "1.0.5"
 fs-err = "2.11.0"
 fs_extra = "1.3.0"
 async_http_range_reader = "0.6.0"
+which = "6.0.0"
 
 [dev-dependencies]
 anyhow = "1.0.79"
diff --git a/crates/rattler_installs_packages/src/python_env/system_python.rs b/crates/rattler_installs_packages/src/python_env/system_python.rs
index b58fb662..12741934 100644
--- a/crates/rattler_installs_packages/src/python_env/system_python.rs
+++ b/crates/rattler_installs_packages/src/python_env/system_python.rs
@@ -24,7 +24,15 @@ pub fn system_python_executable() -> Result<&'static PathBuf, FindPythonError> {
         // When installed with homebrew on macOS, the python3 executable is called `python3` instead
         // Also on some ubuntu installs this is the case
         // For windows it should just be python
-        let output = match std::process::Command::new("python3")
+        let path = which::which("python3")
+            .or_else(|_| which::which("python"))
+            .map_err(|_| FindPythonError::NotFound)?;
+
+        // The found binary may not actually refer to the actual python executable,
+        // this can be because its symlinked, or it's actually a script that invokes python.
+        //
+        // Execute the binary itself to determine where the interpreter is located.
+        let output = match std::process::Command::new(path)
             .arg("-c")
             .arg("import sys; print(sys.executable, end='')")
             .output()