diff --git a/aclocal.m4 b/aclocal.m4
index f988bcede..dc8a13b49 100644
--- a/aclocal.m4
+++ b/aclocal.m4
@@ -349,29 +349,6 @@ AC_MSG_RESULT([$NM])
 AC_SUBST(NM)
 ])
 
-# Add --enable-maintainer-mode option to configure.
-# From Jim Meyering
-
-# serial 1
-
-AC_DEFUN(AM_MAINTAINER_MODE,
-[AC_MSG_CHECKING([whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles])
-  dnl maintainer-mode is disabled by default
-  AC_ARG_ENABLE(maintainer-mode,
-[  --enable-maintainer-mode enable make rules and dependencies not useful
-                          (and sometimes confusing) to the casual installer],
-      USE_MAINTAINER_MODE=$enableval,
-      USE_MAINTAINER_MODE=no)
-  AC_MSG_RESULT($USE_MAINTAINER_MODE)
-  if test $USE_MAINTAINER_MODE = yes; then
-    MAINT=
-  else
-    MAINT='#M#'
-  fi
-  AC_SUBST(MAINT)dnl
-]
-)
-
 # Define a conditional.
 
 AC_DEFUN(AM_CONDITIONAL,
diff --git a/configure.in b/configure.in
index 8a297bbc5..b084d5f0a 100644
--- a/configure.in
+++ b/configure.in
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@ AC_PROG_LN_S
 dnl Initialize libtool
 AM_PROG_LIBTOOL
 
-dnl Initialize maintainer mode
-AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
+dnl Initialize maintainer mode (I'm not sure what this does)
+dnl AM_MAINTAINER_MODE
 
 dnl This is needed for AC_TRY_COMPILE later
 AC_ISC_POSIX