diff --git a/scripts/checkdeps b/scripts/checkdeps
index 1f540114aa..6a1d06f09d 100755
--- a/scripts/checkdeps
+++ b/scripts/checkdeps
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ get_deps() {
   for i in "${!deps[@]}"; do
     dep=${deps[$i]}
     dep_pkg=${deps_pkg[$i]}
-    [ -z "`which $dep 2>/dev/null`" ] && need+=($dep) && need_pkg+=("$dep_pkg")
+    [ -z "$(which $dep 2>/dev/null)" ] && need+=($dep) && need_pkg+=("$dep_pkg")
   done
 
   for i in "${!files[@]}"; do
@@ -78,8 +78,8 @@ case "$DISTRO" in
     fedora|centos|rhel)
       deps+=(g++ mkfontscale mkfontdir bdftopcf xsltproc java python)
       deps_pkg+=(gcc-c++ xorg-x11-font-utils xorg-x11-font-utils xorg-x11-font-utils libxslt java-1.7.0-openjdk python2)
-      [[ ! `rpm -qa glibc-static` ]] && deps+=(glibc-static) && deps_pkg+=(glibc-static)
-      [[ ! `rpm -qa libstdc++-static` ]] && deps+=(libstdc++-static) && deps_pkg+=(libstdc++-static)
+      [[ ! $(rpm -qa glibc-static) ]] && deps+=(glibc-static) && deps_pkg+=(glibc-static)
+      [[ ! $(rpm -qa libstdc++-static) ]] && deps+=(libstdc++-static) && deps_pkg+=(libstdc++-static)
       files_pkg=(glibc-headers ncurses-devel)
       perl_pkg=(perl-JSON perl-XML-parser)
       ;;
@@ -97,7 +97,7 @@ case "$DISTRO" in
     opensuse)
       deps+=( g++ mkfontscale mkfontdir bdftopcf xsltproc java python)
       deps_pkg+=(gcc-c++ mkfontscale mkfontdir bdftopcf libxslt-tools java-1_8_0-openjdk python)
-      [[ ! `rpm -qa glibc-devel-static` ]] && deps+=(glibc-devel-static) && deps_pkg+=(glibc-devel-static)
+      [[ ! $(rpm -qa glibc-devel-static) ]] && deps+=(glibc-devel-static) && deps_pkg+=(glibc-devel-static)
       perl_pkg=(perl-JSON perl-XML-Parser)
       ;;
     *)
@@ -137,7 +137,7 @@ if [ "${#need[@]}" -gt 0 ]; then
       get_yes_no && sudo apt-get install "${need_pkg[@]}"
       ;;
     fedora|centos|rhel)
-      if [ `which dnf` ]; then YUM=dnf; else YUM=yum; fi
+      if [ $(which dnf) ]; then YUM=dnf; else YUM=yum; fi
       get_yes_no && sudo $YUM install "${need_pkg[@]}"
       ;;
     gentoo)