diff --git a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/apps/gedit/default.nix b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/apps/gedit/default.nix
index 532e8dcb0f0..2dcd265e2e4 100644
--- a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/apps/gedit/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/apps/gedit/default.nix
@@ -32,10 +32,6 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
     patchShebangs plugins/externaltools/scripts/gedit-tool-merge.pl
   '';
 
-  mesonFlags = [
-    "--buildtype=plain" # don't require git
-  ];
-
   # Reliably fails to generate gedit-file-browser-enum-types.h in time
   enableParallelBuilding = false;