Major Description
bundles in etc/startup.properties are very fundamental and are installed before feature service is available. However, we can always uninstall those critical bundles through feature service. For an instance, after Karaf container is up, we install karaf-framework feature and unintall karaf-framework feature, as karaf-framework feature include several bundles from the etc/startup.properties , so uninstall karaf-framework feature simply cause the container become malfunction. This shouldn't happen IMO.
So when the feature service is up, we should register an virtual feature like "startup" and this feature hold all bundles in startup.properties to ensure those bundles won't be uninstalled through other features occasionally.