diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index a58c1256..0937e50d 100644
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ opts.Add(BoolVariable('enable_gegl', 'enable GEGL based code in build', False))
 opts.Add(BoolVariable('enable_introspection', 'enable GObject introspection support', False))
 opts.Add(BoolVariable('enable_docs', 'enable documentation build', False))
 opts.Add(BoolVariable('enable_gperftools', 'enable gperftools in build, for profiling', False))
-opts.Add(BoolVariable('enable_openmp', 'enable OpenMP for libmypaint', False))
+opts.Add(BoolVariable('enable_openmp', 'enable OpenMP for multithreaded processing (on by default)', True))
 opts.Add('python_binary', 'python executable to build for', default_python_binary)
 opts.Add('python_config', 'python-config to used', default_python_config)