Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> writes:

>> Is there any reason to require package.el at startup at all?
>
> Yes: `package-activate-all` (called from `startup.el`).

See if this is acceptable. I tried to make as few chagnes to package.el
as possible, and I didn't wont to introduce a new file, so I just put
the relevant files into startup.el.

I am not sure about package--activated; if quicstart should set it to 't
or not. I don't think is needed, and am not sure if it is straight wrong
to do too in quickstart, so I don't do that.

Seems to work for me, but I am never sure with Emacs :-). If that this
change is acceptable I can write something short for the news file too.