--- ez_setup.py~	2007-09-10 12:36:30.000000000 -0600
+++ ez_setup.py	2007-09-18 15:26:50.000000000 -0600
@@ -77,31 +77,13 @@
     this routine will print a message to ``sys.stderr`` and raise SystemExit in
     an attempt to abort the calling script.
     """
-    try:
-        import setuptools
-        if setuptools.__version__ == '0.0.1':
-            print >>sys.stderr, (
-            "You have an obsolete version of setuptools installed.  Please\n"
-            "remove it from your system entirely before rerunning this script."
-            )
-            sys.exit(2)
-    except ImportError:
-        egg = download_setuptools(version, download_base, to_dir, download_delay)
-        sys.path.insert(0, egg)
-        import setuptools; setuptools.bootstrap_install_from = egg
-
+    verstr = os.system("python -c \"import setuptools;print setuptools.__version__\"")
     import pkg_resources
-    try:
-        pkg_resources.require("setuptools>="+version)
 
-    except pkg_resources.VersionConflict, e:
-        # XXX could we install in a subprocess here?
-        print >>sys.stderr, (
-            "The required version of setuptools (>=%s) is not available, and\n"
-            "can't be installed while this script is running. Please install\n"
-            " a more recent version first.\n\n(Currently using %r)"
-        ) % (version, e.args[0])
-        sys.exit(2)
+    if pkg_resources.parse_version(verstr) < pkg_resources.parse_version(version):
+        egg = download_setuptools(version, download_base, to_dir)
+        sys.path.insert(0, egg)
+        import setuptools; setuptools.bootstrap_install_from = egg
 
 def download_setuptools(
     version=DEFAULT_VERSION, download_base=DEFAULT_URL, to_dir=os.curdir,