diff --git a/lib/releaseme/l10nstatistics.rb b/lib/releaseme/l10nstatistics.rb
index 062e891..562b084 100644
--- a/lib/releaseme/l10nstatistics.rb
+++ b/lib/releaseme/l10nstatistics.rb
@@ -1,74 +1,81 @@
 #--
 # Copyright (C) 2014 Harald Sitter <sitter@kde.org>
 #
 # This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
 # modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
 # published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of
 # the License or (at your option) version 3 or any later version
 # accepted by the membership of KDE e.V. (or its successor approved
 # by the membership of KDE e.V.), which shall act as a proxy
 # defined in Section 14 of version 3 of the license.
 #
 # This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
 # but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
 # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
 # GNU General Public License for more details.
 #
 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
 # along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
 #++
 
+require 'open3'
+
 module ReleaseMe
   class L10nStatistics
     attr_reader :stats
 
     def initialize # (project)
       # project = project
       @stats = {}
     end
 
     def gather!(podir)
       Dir.chdir(podir) do
         languages = Dir.glob('*')
         languages.each do |language|
           next unless File.directory?(language)
           Dir.chdir(language) do
             translated = 0
             fuzzy = 0
             untranslated = 0
 
             Dir.glob('*.po').each do |file|
-              data = `LC_ALL=C LANG=C msgfmt --statistics #{file} -o #{File::NULL} > /dev/stdout 2>&1`
+              _, stderr, status = Open3.capture3(
+                { 'LC_ALL' => 'C', 'LANG' => 'C' },
+                'msgfmt', '--statistics', file, '-o', File::NULL
+              )
+              raise stderr unless status.success?
+              data = stderr.strip
 
               # tear the data apart and create some variables
               data.split(',').each do |x|
                 if x.include?('untranslated')
                   untranslated += x.scan(/[\d]+/)[0].to_i
                 elsif x.include?('fuzzy')
                   fuzzy += x.scan(/[\d]+/)[0].to_i
                 elsif x.include?('translated')
                   translated += x.scan(/[\d]+/)[0].to_i
                 end
               end
             end
 
             all = translated + fuzzy + untranslated
             notshown = fuzzy + untranslated
             shown = all - notshown
             percentage = ((100.0 * shown.to_f) / all.to_f)
 
             @stats[language] = {
               all: all,
               shown: shown,
               notshown: notshown,
               percentage: percentage
             }
           end
         end
       end
     end
 
     def write(_html_file_path)
     end
   end
 end