diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index 8c3de2f..1bc9b1e 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -1,3 +1,2 @@
 bin/
-version.go
 licenses.go
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index bf0bda0..c2cb396 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 UPDATE_URL=https://noisetorch.epicgamer.org
 UPDATE_PUBKEY=3mL+rBi4yBZ1wGimQ/oSQCjxELzgTh+673H4JdzQBOk=
+VERSION := $(shell git describe --tags)
 
 dev: rnnoise
 	mkdir -p bin/
@@ -17,7 +18,7 @@ release: rnnoise
 
 	mkdir -p tmp/.local/bin/
 	go generate
-	CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -tags release -a -ldflags '-s -w -extldflags "-static" -X main.distribution=official -X main.updateURL=${UPDATE_URL} -X main.publicKeyString=${UPDATE_PUBKEY}' .
+	CGO_ENABLED=0 GOOS=linux go build -tags release -a -ldflags '-s -w -extldflags "-static" -X main.version=${VERSION} -X main.distribution=official -X main.updateURL=${UPDATE_URL} -X main.publicKeyString=${UPDATE_PUBKEY}' .
 	upx noisetorch
 	mv noisetorch tmp/.local/bin/
 	cd tmp/; \
diff --git a/main.go b/main.go
index 7eea556..bd87869 100644
--- a/main.go
+++ b/main.go
@@ -22,7 +22,6 @@ import (
 	"github.com/aarzilli/nucular/style"
 )
 
-//go:generate go run scripts/embedversion.go
 //go:generate go run scripts/embedlicenses.go
 
 //go:embed c/ladspa/rnnoise_ladspa.so
@@ -41,6 +40,7 @@ type device struct {
 }
 
 const appName = "NoiseTorch"
+var version = "unknown"
 var distribution = "custom"  // will be changed by build
 
 var updateURL = ""  // ditto
diff --git a/scripts/embedversion.go b/scripts/embedversion.go
deleted file mode 100644
index ce0a756..0000000
--- a/scripts/embedversion.go
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,24 +0,0 @@
-package main
-
-import (
-	"os"
-	"os/exec"
-	"strings"
-)
-
-func main() {
-	cmd := exec.Command("git", "describe", "--tags")
-	ret, err := cmd.Output()
-
-	if err != nil {
-		panic("Couldn't read git tags to embed version number")
-	}
-	version := strings.TrimSpace(string(ret))
-
-	out, _ := os.Create("version.go")
-	defer out.Close()
-
-	out.Write([]byte("package main\n\n//THIS FILE IS AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED BY `go generate` DO NOT EDIT!\n\nvar version=\""))
-	out.Write([]byte(version))
-	out.Write([]byte("\"\n"))
-}