@Justin Tadlock - For a long while now, I've been a fan of the idea to just redo Kubrik or the Classic theme and not only update the code in both, but comment the hell out of the php files to explain how the theme works, function by function. I'm still torn on the idea of WordPress shipping with a default framework as it may steer alot of people away from the software. Although you could counter argue the point that there are tons of free themes available.

@Ozh - There is no concrete definition of the term since theme authors who have their own, also have their own reasoning and explanation as to what it is. But I've come to understand theme frameworks as a number of files which contains everything you would need to create a theme but without editing the themes core files. Instead, you create a child theme which links and taps into the theme framework code. This means, you could easily update the functionality of the framework without ruining any child themes running under that framework and you don't lose any changes when you upgrade the theme, as long as you stay away from editing the core files of the framework which shouldn't be necessary.

That probably was a dumb explanation. but that is how I see it.

@Chip Bennett - According to the ticket which Nathan Rice linked to in his comment, it seems to me like DD32 is suggesting a new clean, valid, well documented theme be added to replace either the classic or kubrik theme so that when users use that theme as the base for their own customized theme, it starts off with clean code, is standards compliant, and documented to make it easy to figure out what is what. If that is the case, I'd love to see something like that added with the download package.

@Nathan Rice - I only had to read the trac ticket by DD32 once to recognize that he is suggesting that Kubrick be replaced with a theme that is standards compliant, takes advantage of the latest WordPress code base, is coded cleanly, and well documented. Considering many people base their themes off of Kubrik since it comes with WordPress, replacing it with a theme like I described I think could do nothing but benefit the project and community as a whole. I think something like this could really enhance the overall theme designing community, especially new comers to WordPress or first time designers.

@Andrea_R - I'm with you. Reading over the ticket looks like DD32 is suggesting a spiffy new default theme that can really be pointed at as a good base to start a new theme from.

@Paul - That may be true, but I think if they just took a theme and started over and kept in mind that thousands of people would use it as a base for their own creation, creating a standards compliant, well documented, well coded theme would be the best way to go. I'd love to see them simply provide a theme that matches what DD32 described in his ticket while updating the other theme to use the WordPress 2.7 codebase.