diff --git a/lib/mpl_examples b/lib/mpl_examples
deleted file mode 120000
index a6573af9c9da..000000000000
--- a/lib/mpl_examples
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-../examples
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 41037e95dbd1..b045f8953bb6 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -11,23 +11,6 @@
 
 import sys
 
-# 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')
-
 from io import BytesIO
 import os
 from string import Template