We have never yet released artifacts for samples apart from those that were released as part of a server release via plugins in 2.0.x (jsp-examples, servlet-examples, and ldap-sample-app). Since these samples weren't included in the server svn they were not released as part of the 2.1 server. We need to get this cleared for the 2.1. In fact, this unfinished 2.1 business is the only reason why I'm looking into the whole samples area right now (even though I really should have looked at it earlier).
The released 2.1 server has links to samples that are not released ... hence broken links and a bad user experience. BTW, there are also some problems with this in 2.0.x ... I was able to install the jsp-examples but not servlet-examples or the ldap-sample-app from the links on the welcome page in a 2.0.2 image. Perhaps this has never worked right (even when they were released).
Joe
