diff --git a/docs/devel/development.md b/docs/devel/development.md
index 9e00819138c..d64b6cba00b 100644
--- a/docs/devel/development.md
+++ b/docs/devel/development.md
@@ -50,6 +50,14 @@ Official releases are built using Docker containers. To build Kubernetes using
 Docker please follow [these
 instructions](http://releases.k8s.io/HEAD/build/README.md).
 
+### Local OS/shell environment
+
+Many of the Kubernetes development helper scripts rely on a fairly up-to-date GNU tools
+environment, so most recent Linux distros should work just fine
+out-of-the-box.  Note that Mac OS X ships with somewhat outdated
+BSD-based tools, some of which may be incompatible in subtle ways, so we recommend
+[replacing those with modern GNU tools](https://www.topbug.net/blog/2013/04/14/install-and-use-gnu-command-line-tools-in-mac-os-x/).
+
 ### Go development environment
 
 Kubernetes is written in the [Go](http://golang.org) programming language.