diff --git a/lib/net.js b/lib/net_legacy.js
similarity index 100%
rename from lib/net.js
rename to lib/net_legacy.js
diff --git a/lib/tty_posix.js b/lib/tty_posix.js
index a114d7cba2..b745a6a79d 100644
--- a/lib/tty_posix.js
+++ b/lib/tty_posix.js
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 
 
 var binding = process.binding('stdio'),
-    net = require('net'),
+    net = require('net_legacy'), // FIXME
     inherits = require('util').inherits,
     spawn = require('child_process').spawn;
 
diff --git a/src/node.cc b/src/node.cc
index 65dcf676ad..9d289dba9b 100644
--- a/src/node.cc
+++ b/src/node.cc
@@ -123,6 +123,18 @@ static uv_async_t eio_want_poll_notifier;
 static uv_async_t eio_done_poll_notifier;
 static uv_idle_t eio_poller;
 
+
+// XXX use_uv defaults to false on POSIX platforms and to true on Windows
+// platforms. This can be set with "--use-uv" command-line flag. We intend
+// to remove the legacy backend once the libuv backend is passing all of the
+// tests.
+#ifdef __POSIX__
+static bool use_uv = false;
+#else
+static bool use_uv = true;
+#endif
+
+
 // Buffer for getpwnam_r(), getgrpam_r() and other misc callers; keep this
 // scoped at file-level rather than method-level to avoid excess stack usage.
 static char getbuf[PATH_MAX + 1];
@@ -2082,6 +2094,7 @@ Handle<Object> SetupProcessObject(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 
   process->Set(String::NewSymbol("pid"), Integer::New(getpid()));
   process->Set(String::NewSymbol("cov"), cov ? True() : False());
+  process->Set(String::NewSymbol("useUV"), use_uv ? True() : False());
 
   // -e, --eval
   if (eval_string) {
@@ -2225,6 +2238,7 @@ static void PrintHelp() {
          "  --vars               print various compiled-in variables\n"
          "  --max-stack-size=val set max v8 stack size (bytes)\n"
          "  --cov                code coverage; writes node-cov.json \n"
+         "  --use-uv             use the libuv backend\n"
          "\n"
          "Enviromental variables:\n"
          "NODE_PATH              ':'-separated list of directories\n"
@@ -2250,6 +2264,9 @@ static void ParseArgs(int argc, char **argv) {
     } else if (!strcmp(arg, "--cov")) {
       cov = true;
       argv[i] = const_cast<char*>("");
+    } else if (!strcmp(arg, "--use-uv")) {
+      use_uv = true;
+      argv[i] = const_cast<char*>("");
     } else if (strcmp(arg, "--version") == 0 || strcmp(arg, "-v") == 0) {
       printf("%s\n", NODE_VERSION);
       exit(0);
diff --git a/src/node.js b/src/node.js
index 581bb94b84..dd156eec0c 100644
--- a/src/node.js
+++ b/src/node.js
@@ -387,7 +387,19 @@
   var Script = process.binding('evals').NodeScript;
   var runInThisContext = Script.runInThisContext;
 
+  // A special hook to test the new platform layer. Use the command-line
+  // flag --use-uv to enable the libuv backend instead of the legacy
+  // backend.
+  function translateId(id) {
+    if (id == 'net') {
+      return process.useUV ? 'net_uv' : 'net_legacy';
+    } else {
+      return id;
+    }
+  }
+
   function NativeModule(id) {
+    id = translateId(id);
     this.filename = id + '.js';
     this.id = id;
     this.exports = {};
@@ -398,6 +410,8 @@
   NativeModule._cache = {};
 
   NativeModule.require = function(id) {
+    id = translateId(id);
+
     if (id == 'native_module') {
       return NativeModule;
     }
@@ -420,14 +434,17 @@
   };
 
   NativeModule.getCached = function(id) {
+    id = translateId(id);
     return NativeModule._cache[id];
   }
 
   NativeModule.exists = function(id) {
+    id = translateId(id);
     return (id in NativeModule._source);
   }
 
   NativeModule.getSource = function(id) {
+    id = translateId(id);
     return NativeModule._source[id];
   }