diff --git a/build/build-official-release.sh b/build/build-official-release.sh
deleted file mode 100755
index d55bb0e7dea..00000000000
--- a/build/build-official-release.sh
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,108 +0,0 @@
-#!/bin/bash
-
-# Copyright 2015 The Kubernetes Authors All rights reserved.
-#
-# Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
-# you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
-# You may obtain a copy of the License at
-#
-#     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
-#
-# Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
-# distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
-# WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
-# See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
-# limitations under the License.
-
-# Builds an official release based on a git tag, with instructions for
-# how to proceed after the bits are built.
-
-set -o errexit
-set -o nounset
-set -o pipefail
-
-# Get the md5 (duplicated from common.sh, but don't want to pull in
-# all of common.sh here)
-function md5() {
-  if which md5 >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-    md5 -q "$1"
-  else
-    md5sum "$1" | awk '{ print $1 }'
-  fi
-}
-
-# Get the sha1 (duplicated from common.sh, but don't want to pull in
-# all of common.sh here)
-function sha1() {
-  if which shasum >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-    shasum -a1 "$1" | awk '{ print $1 }'
-  else
-    sha1sum "$1" | awk '{ print $1 }'
-  fi
-}
-
-declare -r KUBE_GITHUB="https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes.git"
-declare -r KUBE_RELEASE_VERSION=${1-}
-declare -r KUBE_RELEASE_UMASK=${KUBE_RELEASE_UMASK:-022}
-
-VERSION_REGEX="^v(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)\\.(0|[1-9][0-9]*)$"
-[[ ${KUBE_RELEASE_VERSION} =~ ${VERSION_REGEX} ]] || {
-  echo "!!! You must specify the version you are releasing in the form of '${VERSION_REGEX}'" >&2
-  exit 1
-}
-
-declare -r KUBE_BUILD_DIR="/tmp/kubernetes-release-${KUBE_RELEASE_VERSION}-$(date +%s)"
-
-# Set the default umask for the release. This ensures consistency
-# across our release builds.
-umask "${KUBE_RELEASE_UMASK}"
-
-echo "Cloning ${KUBE_GITHUB} at ${KUBE_RELEASE_VERSION}."
-echo
-echo "NOTE: Ignore the deatched HEAD warning you're about to get. We want that."
-echo
-git clone ${KUBE_GITHUB} -b "${KUBE_RELEASE_VERSION}" "${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}"
-
-# !!! REMINDER !!!
-#
-# Past this point, you are dealing with a different release. Don't
-# assume you're executing code from the same repo as this script is
-# running in. This needs to be a version agnostic build.
-
-echo
-echo "Cloned, building release."
-echo
-
-cd "${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}"
-export KUBE_RELEASE_RUN_TESTS=n
-export KUBE_SKIP_CONFIRMATIONS=y
-make release
-
-if ${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}/cluster/kubectl.sh version | grep Client | grep dirty; then
-  echo "!!! Tag at invalid point, or something else is bad. Build is dirty. Don't push this build." >&2
-  exit 1
-fi
-
-ln -s ${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}/_output/release-tars/kubernetes.tar.gz ${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}
-
-MD5=$(md5 "${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}/kubernetes.tar.gz")
-SHA1=$(sha1 "${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}/kubernetes.tar.gz")
-
-echo ""
-echo "Success! You must now do the following: (you may want to cut"
-echo "  and paste these instructions elsewhere, step 1 can be spammy)"
-echo ""
-echo "  1) (cd ${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}; build/push-official-release.sh)"
-echo "  2) Go to https://github.com/GoogleCloudPlatform/kubernetes/releases"
-echo "     and create a new 'Release ${KUBE_RELEASE_VERSION} Candidate' release"
-echo "  3) Upload the ${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}/kubernetes.tar.gz to GitHub"
-echo "  4) Use this table for the hashes:"
-echo ""
-echo "binary | hash alg | hash"
-echo "------ | -------- | ----"
-echo "\`kubernetes.tar.gz\` | md5 | \`${MD5}\`"
-echo "\`kubernetes.tar.gz\` | sha1 | \`${SHA1}\`"
-echo ""
-echo "  5) Ensure all the binaries are in place on GitHub and GCS before cleaning."
-echo "  6) (cd ${KUBE_BUILD_DIR}; make clean; cd -; rm -rf ${KUBE_BUILD_DIR})"
-echo ""
diff --git a/build/common.sh b/build/common.sh
index cc16b6d14d2..764006c0bec 100644
--- a/build/common.sh
+++ b/build/common.sh
@@ -185,21 +185,6 @@ function kube::build::verify_prereqs() {
   KUBE_BUILD_CONTAINER_NAME="kube-build-${KUBE_ROOT_HASH}"
   KUBE_BUILD_DATA_CONTAINER_NAME="kube-build-data-${KUBE_ROOT_HASH}"
   DOCKER_MOUNT_ARGS=("${DOCKER_MOUNT_ARGS_BASE[@]}" --volumes-from "${KUBE_BUILD_DATA_CONTAINER_NAME}")
-
-  # Find gnu tar if it is available, bomb out if not.
-  TAR=tar
-  if which gtar &>/dev/null; then
-      TAR=gtar
-  else
-      if which gnutar &>/dev/null; then
-	  TAR=gnutar
-      fi
-  fi
-  if ! "${TAR}" --version | grep -q GNU; then
-    echo "  !!! Cannot find GNU tar. Build on Linux or install GNU tar"
-    echo "      on Mac OS X (brew install gnu-tar)."
-    exit 1
-  fi
 }
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -352,7 +337,7 @@ function kube::build::build_image() {
   kube::build::build_image_cross
 
   mkdir -p "${build_context_dir}"
-  "${TAR}" czf "${build_context_dir}/kube-source.tar.gz" $(kube::build::source_targets)
+  tar czf "${build_context_dir}/kube-source.tar.gz" $(kube::build::source_targets)
 
   kube::version::get_version_vars
   kube::version::save_version_vars "${build_context_dir}/kube-version-defs"
@@ -778,7 +763,26 @@ function kube::release::create_tarball() {
   local tarfile=$1
   local stagingdir=$2
 
-  "${TAR}" czf "${tarfile}" -C "${stagingdir}" kubernetes --owner=0 --group=0
+  # Find gnu tar if it is available
+  local tar=tar
+  if which gtar &>/dev/null; then
+      tar=gtar
+  else
+      if which gnutar &>/dev/null; then
+	  tar=gnutar
+      fi
+  fi
+
+  local tar_cmd=("$tar" "czf" "${tarfile}" "-C" "${stagingdir}" "kubernetes")
+  if "$tar" --version | grep -q GNU; then
+    tar_cmd=("${tar_cmd[@]}" "--owner=0" "--group=0")
+  else
+    echo "  !!! GNU tar not available.  User names will be embedded in output and"
+    echo "      release tars are not official. Build on Linux or install GNU tar"
+    echo "      on Mac OS X (brew install gnu-tar)"
+  fi
+
+  "${tar_cmd[@]}"
 }
 
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -846,7 +850,7 @@ function kube::release::gcs::stage_and_hash() {
     srcdir=$(dirname ${src})
     srcthing=$(basename ${src})
     mkdir -p ${GCS_STAGE}/${dst}
-    "${TAR}" c -C ${srcdir} ${srcthing} | "${TAR}" x -C ${GCS_STAGE}/${dst}
+    tar c -C ${srcdir} ${srcthing} | tar x -C ${GCS_STAGE}/${dst}
   done
 }
 
diff --git a/build/push-official-release.sh b/build/push-official-release.sh
index 0aefbd33be0..03617d30e05 100755
--- a/build/push-official-release.sh
+++ b/build/push-official-release.sh
@@ -39,10 +39,5 @@ KUBE_GCS_LATEST_CONTENTS=${KUBE_RELEASE_VERSION}
 KUBE_ROOT=$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE}")/..
 source "$KUBE_ROOT/build/common.sh"
 
-if ${KUBE_ROOT}/cluster/kubectl.sh version | grep Client | grep dirty; then
-  echo "!!! Tag at invalid point, or something else is bad. Build is dirty. Don't push this build." >&2
-  exit 1
-fi
-
 kube::release::gcs::release
 kube::release::gcs::publish_latest_official