diff --git a/main/src/main/scala/sbt/internal/SysProp.scala b/main/src/main/scala/sbt/internal/SysProp.scala
index defeb726f..e25919403 100644
--- a/main/src/main/scala/sbt/internal/SysProp.scala
+++ b/main/src/main/scala/sbt/internal/SysProp.scala
@@ -89,7 +89,8 @@ object SysProp {
 
   def fileCacheSize: Long =
     SizeParser(System.getProperty("sbt.file.cache.size", "128M")).getOrElse(128L * 1024 * 1024)
-  def supershell: Boolean = booleanOpt("sbt.supershell").getOrElse(color)
+  def dumbTerm: Boolean = sys.env.get("TERM").filter(_ == "dumb").isDefined
+  def supershell: Boolean = booleanOpt("sbt.supershell").getOrElse(!dumbTerm && color)
 
   def supershellSleep: Long = long("sbt.supershell.sleep", 100L)
   def supershellBlankZone: Int = int("sbt.supershell.blankzone", 5)