diff --git a/common/lib/capa/setup.py b/common/lib/capa/setup.py
index b9466ca101971bb41708bdc97fd4868742e03ceb..dcb631e376efb0621b82a5fa0c9042f8ad17734d 100644
--- a/common/lib/capa/setup.py
+++ b/common/lib/capa/setup.py
@@ -4,5 +4,5 @@ setup(
     name="capa",
     version="0.1",
     packages=find_packages(exclude=["tests"]),
-    install_requires=["setuptools"],
+    install_requires=["distribute>=0.6.28"],
 )
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/setup.py b/common/lib/xmodule/setup.py
index e1e50daf981f8dffe0ed53cf925ca2679f99a146..fedb0e4447d3ec787110b76abb4fd2701e7a7e55 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/setup.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/setup.py
@@ -54,7 +54,7 @@ setup(
     version="0.1",
     packages=find_packages(exclude=["tests"]),
     install_requires=[
-        'setuptools',
+        'distribute',
         'docopt',
         'capa',
         'path.py',
diff --git a/requirements/edx/base.txt b/requirements/edx/base.txt
index 4bb8bcde1f4b460b76c24eabd8970f34e037abf3..1c57426cd63bacced26c55d8ee55b715975a2c0c 100644
--- a/requirements/edx/base.txt
+++ b/requirements/edx/base.txt
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ celery==3.1.18
 cssselect==0.9.1
 dealer==2.0.4
 defusedxml==0.4.1
+distribute>=0.6.28, <0.7
 django-babel-underscore==0.1.0
 django-celery==3.1.16
 django-countries==3.3
diff --git a/requirements/edx/pre.txt b/requirements/edx/pre.txt
index 5efe89783842a6105b9ce4c6ed9714d3c2027c1c..89bfe09890d50da5e8644c18bebdcaca2ed6704d 100644
--- a/requirements/edx/pre.txt
+++ b/requirements/edx/pre.txt
@@ -5,9 +5,6 @@
 #   * One of @e0d, @feanil, @fredsmith, @maxrothman, or @jibsheet
 #     to check system requirements
 
-# Use a modern setuptools instead of distribute
-setuptools==18.0.1
-
 # Numpy and scipy can't be installed in the same pip run.
 # Install numpy before other things to help resolve the problem.
 numpy==1.6.2
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 1b2ef6ec30e6f6f4e787b2d17f5a559bead787d1..6dbbdd90aa467b25203038b0d4af0178591e90af 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ from setuptools import setup
 setup(
     name="Open edX",
     version="0.4",
-    install_requires=["setuptools"],
+    install_requires=["distribute"],
     requires=[],
     # NOTE: These are not the names we should be installing.  This tree should
     # be reorganized to be a more conventional Python tree.