diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 03ca28762231..aa676f5e19e9 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,12 +7,11 @@
 # to ensure that we error out properly for people with outdated setuptools
 # and/or pip.
 from string import Template
+import sys
 from setuptools import setup
 from setuptools.command.test import test as TestCommand
 from setuptools.command.build_ext import build_ext as BuildExtCommand
 
-import sys
-
 if sys.version_info < (3, 5):
     error = """
 Matplotlib 3.0+ does not support Python 2.x, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, or 3.4.
@@ -24,23 +23,6 @@
 """
     sys.exit(error)
 
-# distutils is breaking our sdists for files in symlinked dirs.
-# distutils will copy if os.link is not available, so this is a hack
-# to force copying
-import os
-try:
-    del os.link
-except AttributeError:
-    pass
-
-# This 'if' statement is needed to prevent spawning infinite processes
-# on Windows
-if __name__ == '__main__':
-    # BEFORE importing distutils, remove MANIFEST. distutils doesn't properly
-    # update it when the contents of directories change.
-    if os.path.exists('MANIFEST'):
-        os.remove('MANIFEST')
-
 # The setuptools version of sdist adds a setup.cfg file to the tree.
 # We don't want that, so we simply remove it, and it will fall back to
 # vanilla distutils.