diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/2.5.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/2.5.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 9d7bb38cf3c..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/2.5.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,10 +0,0 @@
-{ callPackage, fetchurl, ... } @ args:
-
-callPackage ./generic.nix (args // rec {
-  version = "2.5.0";
-  # make sure you test also -A pythonPackages.protobuf
-  src = fetchurl {
-    url = "http://protobuf.googlecode.com/files/${version}.tar.bz2";
-    sha256 = "0xxn9gxhvsgzz2sgmihzf6pf75clr05mqj6218camwrwajpcbgqk";
-  };
-})
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/generic.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/generic.nix
deleted file mode 100644
index 7d64df43626..00000000000
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/protobuf/generic.nix
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,61 +0,0 @@
-{ lib, stdenv, version, src
-, autoreconfHook, zlib, gtest
-, ...
-}:
-
-stdenv.mkDerivation {
-  pname = "protobuf";
-  inherit version;
-
-  inherit src;
-
-  postPatch = ''
-    rm -rf gtest
-    cp -r ${gtest.src}/googletest gtest
-    chmod -R a+w gtest
-  '' + lib.optionalString stdenv.isDarwin ''
-    substituteInPlace src/google/protobuf/testing/googletest.cc \
-      --replace 'tmpnam(b)' '"'$TMPDIR'/foo"'
-  '';
-
-  outputs = [ "out" "lib" ];
-
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ autoreconfHook ];
-  buildInputs = [ zlib ];
-
-  # The generated C++ code uses static initializers which mutate a global data
-  # structure. This causes problems for an executable when:
-  #
-  # 1) it dynamically links to two libs, both of which contain generated C++ for
-  #    the same proto file, and
-  # 2) the two aforementioned libs both dynamically link to libprotobuf.
-  #
-  # One solution is to statically link libprotobuf, that way the global
-  # variables are not shared; in fact, this is necessary for the python Mesos
-  # binding to not crash, as the python lib contains two C extensions which
-  # both refer to the same proto schema.
-  #
-  # See: https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/19064#issuecomment-255082684
-  #      https://github.com/google/protobuf/issues/1489
-  dontDisableStatic = true;
-  configureFlags = [
-    "CFLAGS=-fPIC"
-    "CXXFLAGS=-fPIC"
-  ];
-
-  doCheck = true;
-
-  meta = {
-    description = "Protocol Buffers - Google's data interchange format";
-    longDescription =
-      '' Protocol Buffers are a way of encoding structured data in an
-         efficient yet extensible format.  Google uses Protocol Buffers for
-         almost all of its internal RPC protocols and file formats.
-      '';
-    license = "mBSD";
-    homepage = "https://developers.google.com/protocol-buffers/";
-    platforms = lib.platforms.unix;
-  };
-
-  passthru.version = version;
-}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index 93670a15f35..6d1eeeefd43 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -19753,7 +19753,6 @@ with pkgs;
   protobuf3_7 = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf/3.7.nix { };
   protobuf3_6 = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf/3.6.nix { };
   protobuf3_1 = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf/3.1.nix { };
-  protobuf2_5 = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobuf/2.5.nix { };
 
   protobufc = callPackage ../development/libraries/protobufc/1.3.nix { };