diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 74517cc465e..17c7d4d88e8 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -26,7 +26,7 @@ option (PIO_INTERNAL_DOC     "Enable PIO developer documentation"           OFF)
 option (PIO_TEST_BIG_ENDIAN  "Enable test to see if machine is big endian"  ON)
 option (PIO_USE_MPIIO        "Enable support for MPI-IO auto detect"        ON)
 option (PIO_USE_MPISERIAL    "Enable mpi-serial support (instead of MPI)"   OFF)
-option (PIO_USE_MALLOC       "Use native malloc (instead of bget package)"  OFF)
+option (PIO_USE_MALLOC       "Use native malloc (instead of bget package)"  ON)
 option (PIO_USE_PNETCDF_VARD       "Use pnetcdf put_vard "  OFF)
 option (WITH_PNETCDF         "Require the use of PnetCDF"                   ON)