@Ryan: So, Hello Dolly is no longer included in a fresh install of WP.org? If true, I'm glad to see they removed it. It has been there every time I've installed from latest.zip (as opposed to upgrading e.g. via WPAU).

For my purposes (and I daresay, for *most* WP users), Hello Dolly *is* useless. It adds nothing meaningful whatsoever to my blogging experience. That it is only 2.17 Kb is irrelevant; those 2.17 Kb are used needlessly - thus, they are wasted.

The claim that Hello Dolly acts as an example plugin for developers is also a specious argument with respect to justifying its inclusion in the default install. The vast majority of WP.org users are *not* developers, and have no need of an "example" plugin.

All that said, my main point remains: certain plugins *are* included in the default install of WP.org. Such plugins are, for all intents and purposes, "core" plugins.