diff --git a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
index 7516d7ddf1a6..2d7549aab6d7 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fontconfig.nix
@@ -27,9 +27,11 @@ with lib;
 
   config = mkIf config.fonts.enableFontConfig {
 
-    # Bring in the default (upstream) fontconfig configuration.
+    # Fontconfig 2.10 backward compatibility
+
+    # Bring in the default (upstream) fontconfig configuration, only for fontconfig 2.10
     environment.etc."fonts/fonts.conf".source =
-      pkgs.makeFontsConf { fontDirectories = config.fonts.fonts; };
+      pkgs.makeFontsConf { fontconfig = pkgs.fontconfig_210; fontDirectories = config.fonts.fonts; };
 
     environment.etc."fonts/conf.d/00-nixos.conf".text =
       ''
@@ -47,6 +49,27 @@ with lib;
         </fontconfig>
       '';
 
+    # Versioned fontconfig > 2.10. Only specify font directories.
+
+    environment.etc."fonts/${pkgs.fontconfig.configVersion}/conf.d/00-nixos.conf".text =
+      ''
+        <?xml version='1.0'?>
+        <!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
+        <fontconfig>
+
+          <!-- Set the default hinting style to "slight". -->
+          <match target="font">
+            <edit mode="assign" name="hintstyle">
+              <const>hintslight</const>
+            </edit>
+          </match>
+
+          <!-- Font directories -->
+          ${concatStringsSep "\n" (map (font: "<dir>${font}</dir>") config.fonts.fonts)}
+
+        </fontconfig>
+      '';
+
     environment.systemPackages = [ pkgs.fontconfig ];
 
   };
diff --git a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fonts.nix b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fonts.nix
index f6060a910a15..baf5b7713f5f 100644
--- a/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fonts.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/config/fonts/fonts.nix
@@ -13,14 +13,6 @@ with lib;
         type = types.listOf types.path;
         example = literalExample "[ pkgs.dejavu_fonts ]";
         description = "List of primary font paths.";
-        apply = list: list ++
-          [ # - the user's current profile
-            "~/.nix-profile/lib/X11/fonts"
-            "~/.nix-profile/share/fonts"
-            # - the default profile
-            "/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/lib/X11/fonts"
-            "/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/share/fonts"
-          ];
       };
 
     };
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/2.10.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/2.10.nix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..2951dbb44d4f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/2.10.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,61 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, freetype, expat }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "fontconfig-2.10.2";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url = "http://fontconfig.org/release/${name}.tar.bz2";
+    sha256 = "0llraqw86jmw4vzv7inskp3xxm2gc64my08iwq5mzncgfdbfza4f";
+  };
+
+  infinality_patch =
+    let subvers = "1";
+      in fetchurl {
+        url = http://www.infinality.net/fedora/linux/zips/fontconfig-infinality-1-20130104_1.tar.bz2;
+        sha256 = "1fm5xx0mx2243jrq5rxk4v0ajw2nawpj23399h710bx6hd1rviq7";
+      }
+    ;
+
+  propagatedBuildInputs = [ freetype ];
+  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig expat ];
+
+  configureFlags = [
+    "--sysconfdir=/etc"
+    "--with-cache-dir=/var/cache/fontconfig"
+    "--disable-docs"
+    "--with-default-fonts="
+  ];
+
+  # We should find a better way to access the arch reliably.
+  crossArch = stdenv.cross.arch or null;
+
+  preConfigure = ''
+    if test -n "$crossConfig"; then
+      configureFlags="$configureFlags --with-arch=$crossArch";
+    fi
+  '';
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  doCheck = true;
+
+  # Don't try to write to /var/cache/fontconfig at install time.
+  installFlags = "sysconfdir=$(out)/etc fc_cachedir=$(TMPDIR)/dummy RUN_FC_CACHE_TEST=false";
+
+  postInstall = ''
+    cd "$out/etc/fonts" && tar xvf ${infinality_patch}
+  '';
+
+  passthru = {
+    # Empty for backward compatibility, there was no versioning before 2.11
+    configVersion = "";
+  };
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "A library for font customization and configuration";
+    homepage = http://fontconfig.org/;
+    license = licenses.bsd2; # custom but very bsd-like
+    platforms = platforms.all;
+    maintainers = [ maintainers.vcunat ];
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/builder.sh b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/builder.sh
deleted file mode 100644
index d755bca64e32..000000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/builder.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,5 +0,0 @@
-source $stdenv/setup
-
-configureFlags="--with-confdir=$out/etc/fonts --disable-docs"
-
-genericBuild
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix
index f0c4da755673..1fc7c490d55b 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/default.nix
@@ -1,11 +1,14 @@
-{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, freetype, expat }:
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, pkgconfig, freetype, expat, libxslt, fontbhttf }:
 
+let
+  configVersion = "2.11"; # bump whenever fontconfig breaks compatibility with older configurations
+in
 stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
-  name = "fontconfig-2.10.2";
+  name = "fontconfig-2.11.1";
 
   src = fetchurl {
     url = "http://fontconfig.org/release/${name}.tar.bz2";
-    sha256 = "0llraqw86jmw4vzv7inskp3xxm2gc64my08iwq5mzncgfdbfza4f";
+    sha256 = "16baa4g5lswkyjlyf1h5lwc0zjap7c4d8grw79349a5w6dsl8qnw";
   };
 
   infinality_patch =
@@ -17,13 +20,12 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     ;
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ freetype ];
-  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig expat ];
+  buildInputs = [ pkgconfig libxslt expat ];
 
   configureFlags = [
-    "--sysconfdir=/etc"
     "--with-cache-dir=/var/cache/fontconfig"
     "--disable-docs"
-    "--with-default-fonts="
+    "--with-default-fonts=${fontbhttf}"
   ];
 
   # We should find a better way to access the arch reliably.
@@ -40,12 +42,24 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   doCheck = true;
 
   # Don't try to write to /var/cache/fontconfig at install time.
-  installFlags = "sysconfdir=$(out)/etc fc_cachedir=$(TMPDIR)/dummy RUN_FC_CACHE_TEST=false";
+  installFlags = "fc_cachedir=$(TMPDIR)/dummy RUN_FC_CACHE_TEST=false";
 
+  # Add a default font for non-nixos systems. fontbhttf is only about 1mb.
   postInstall = ''
     cd "$out/etc/fonts" && tar xvf ${infinality_patch}
+    xsltproc --stringparam fontDirectories "${fontbhttf}" \
+      --stringparam fontconfig "$out" \
+      --stringparam fontconfigConfigVersion "${configVersion}" \
+      --path $out/share/xml/fontconfig \
+      ${./make-fonts-conf.xsl} $out/etc/fonts/fonts.conf \
+      > fonts.conf.tmp
+    mv fonts.conf.tmp $out/etc/fonts/fonts.conf
   '';
 
+  passthru = {
+    inherit configVersion;
+  };
+  
   meta = with stdenv.lib; {
     description = "A library for font customization and configuration";
     homepage = http://fontconfig.org/;
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.nix
index f9cd096f559b..2b02e0df7a04 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.nix
@@ -1,13 +1,15 @@
-{ runCommand, libxslt, fontconfig, fontDirectories }:
+{ runCommand, libxslt, fontconfig, fontbhttf, fontDirectories }:
 
 runCommand "fonts.conf"
   {
     buildInputs = [ libxslt fontconfig ];
-    inherit fontDirectories;
+    # Add a default font for non-nixos systems. fontbhttf is only about 1mb.
+    fontDirectories = fontDirectories ++ [ fontbhttf ];
   }
   ''
     xsltproc --stringparam fontDirectories "$fontDirectories" \
       --stringparam fontconfig "${fontconfig}" \
+      --stringparam fontconfigConfigVersion "${fontconfig.configVersion}" \
       --path ${fontconfig}/share/xml/fontconfig \
       ${./make-fonts-conf.xsl} ${fontconfig}/etc/fonts/fonts.conf \
       > $out
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl
index e3938663c9b4..03f7815e38ad 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.xsl
@@ -16,25 +16,37 @@
 
   <xsl:param name="fontDirectories" />
   <xsl:param name="fontconfig" />
+  <xsl:param name="fontconfigConfigVersion" />
 
   <xsl:template match="/fontconfig">
 
     <fontconfig>
       <xsl:apply-templates select="child::node()[name() != 'dir' and name() != 'cachedir' and name() != 'include']" />
 
-      <include ignore_missing="yes">/etc/fonts/conf.d</include>
+      <!-- fontconfig distribution conf.d -->
       <include><xsl:value-of select="$fontconfig" />/etc/fonts/conf.d</include>
+      <!-- versioned system-wide config -->
+      <include ignore_missing="yes">/etc/fonts/<xsl:value-of select="$fontconfigConfigVersion" />/conf.d</include>
+      <!-- look into user config -->
+      <include prefix="xdg" ignore_missing="yes">fontconfig/conf.d</include>
 
+      <!-- the first cachedir will be used to store the cache -->
+      <cachedir prefix="xdg">fontconfig</cachedir>
+      <!-- /var/cache/fontconfig is useful for non-nixos systems -->
       <cachedir>/var/cache/fontconfig</cachedir>
-      <cachedir>~/.fontconfig</cachedir>
 
+      <dir prefix="xdg">fonts</dir>
       <xsl:for-each select="str:tokenize($fontDirectories)">
         <dir><xsl:value-of select="." /></dir>
         <xsl:text>&#0010;</xsl:text>
       </xsl:for-each>
-      <dir prefix="xdg">fonts</dir>
-      <!-- the following element will be removed in the future -->
-      <dir>~/.fonts</dir>
+
+      <!-- nix user profile -->
+      <dir>~/.nix-profile/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
+      <dir>~/.nix-profile/share/fonts</dir>
+      <!-- nix default profile -->
+      <dir>/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/lib/X11/fonts</dir>
+      <dir>/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/share/fonts</dir>
 
     </fontconfig>
 
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index e06de1c25637..21c401c746a4 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -4944,11 +4944,14 @@ let
 
   cfitsio = callPackage ../development/libraries/cfitsio { };
 
+  fontconfig_210 = callPackage ../development/libraries/fontconfig/2.10.nix { };
+
   fontconfig = callPackage ../development/libraries/fontconfig { };
 
   makeFontsConf = let fontconfig_ = fontconfig; in {fontconfig ? fontconfig_, fontDirectories}:
     import ../development/libraries/fontconfig/make-fonts-conf.nix {
       inherit runCommand libxslt fontconfig fontDirectories;
+      inherit (xorg) fontbhttf;
     };
 
   freealut = callPackage ../development/libraries/freealut { };