diff --git a/homeassistant/package_constraints.txt b/homeassistant/package_constraints.txt
index fa5b52478d07..2fdbd60dd46a 100644
--- a/homeassistant/package_constraints.txt
+++ b/homeassistant/package_constraints.txt
@@ -31,6 +31,7 @@ Jinja2==3.1.2
 lru-dict==1.2.0
 mutagen==1.46.0
 orjson==3.9.2
+packaging>=23.1
 paho-mqtt==1.6.1
 Pillow==10.0.0
 pip>=21.3.1
diff --git a/homeassistant/runner.py b/homeassistant/runner.py
index 67ec232db9c2..4bbf1a7dada0 100644
--- a/homeassistant/runner.py
+++ b/homeassistant/runner.py
@@ -11,6 +11,8 @@ import threading
 import traceback
 from typing import Any
 
+import packaging.tags
+
 from . import bootstrap
 from .core import callback
 from .helpers.frame import warn_use
@@ -29,7 +31,6 @@ from .util.thread import deadlock_safe_shutdown
 #
 MAX_EXECUTOR_WORKERS = 64
 TASK_CANCELATION_TIMEOUT = 5
-ALPINE_RELEASE_FILE = "/etc/alpine-release"
 
 _LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
@@ -164,8 +165,9 @@ def _enable_posix_spawn() -> None:
     # The subprocess module does not know about Alpine Linux/musl
     # and will use fork() instead of posix_spawn() which significantly
     # less efficient. This is a workaround to force posix_spawn()
-    # on Alpine Linux which is supported by musl.
-    subprocess._USE_POSIX_SPAWN = os.path.exists(ALPINE_RELEASE_FILE)
+    # when using musl since cpython is not aware its supported.
+    tag = next(packaging.tags.sys_tags())
+    subprocess._USE_POSIX_SPAWN = "musllinux" in tag.platform
 
 
 def run(runtime_config: RuntimeConfig) -> int:
diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index 07d527eb77cd..9a5261879995 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@ dependencies    = [
     # pyOpenSSL 23.2.0 is required to work with cryptography 41+
     "pyOpenSSL==23.2.0",
     "orjson==3.9.2",
+    "packaging>=23.1",
     "pip>=21.3.1",
     "python-slugify==4.0.1",
     "PyYAML==6.0.1",
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index 4106a8515d14..debdc7dbcb3c 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ PyJWT==2.8.0
 cryptography==41.0.3
 pyOpenSSL==23.2.0
 orjson==3.9.2
+packaging>=23.1
 pip>=21.3.1
 python-slugify==4.0.1
 PyYAML==6.0.1
diff --git a/tests/test_runner.py b/tests/test_runner.py
index f32321c578c3..5fe5c2881ffd 100644
--- a/tests/test_runner.py
+++ b/tests/test_runner.py
@@ -1,8 +1,10 @@
 """Test the runner."""
 import asyncio
+from collections.abc import Iterator
 import threading
 from unittest.mock import patch
 
+import packaging.tags
 import py
 import pytest
 
@@ -147,19 +149,22 @@ async def test_unhandled_exception_traceback(
 
 
 def test__enable_posix_spawn() -> None:
-    """Test that we can enable posix_spawn on Alpine."""
+    """Test that we can enable posix_spawn on musllinux."""
 
-    def _mock_alpine_exists(path):
-        return path == "/etc/alpine-release"
+    def _mock_sys_tags_any() -> Iterator[packaging.tags.Tag]:
+        yield from packaging.tags.parse_tag("py3-none-any")
 
-    with patch.object(runner.subprocess, "_USE_POSIX_SPAWN", False), patch.object(
-        runner.os.path, "exists", _mock_alpine_exists
+    def _mock_sys_tags_musl() -> Iterator[packaging.tags.Tag]:
+        yield from packaging.tags.parse_tag("cp311-cp311-musllinux_1_1_x86_64")
+
+    with patch.object(runner.subprocess, "_USE_POSIX_SPAWN", False), patch(
+        "homeassistant.runner.packaging.tags.sys_tags", side_effect=_mock_sys_tags_musl
     ):
         runner._enable_posix_spawn()
         assert runner.subprocess._USE_POSIX_SPAWN is True
 
-    with patch.object(runner.subprocess, "_USE_POSIX_SPAWN", False), patch.object(
-        runner.os.path, "exists", return_value=False
+    with patch.object(runner.subprocess, "_USE_POSIX_SPAWN", False), patch(
+        "homeassistant.runner.packaging.tags.sys_tags", side_effect=_mock_sys_tags_any
     ):
         runner._enable_posix_spawn()
         assert runner.subprocess._USE_POSIX_SPAWN is False