By default, vim runs in vi-compatible mode. Some people might like this, but we prefer to run vim in its own mode (else we wouldn't have included it in this book, but the original vi). Create a default vim configuration file by running the following: cat > /etc/vimrc << "EOF" " Begin /etc/vimrc set nocompatible set backspace=2 syntax on " End /etc/vimrc EOF The set nocompatible will make vim behave in a more useful way than the default vi-compatible manner. The set backspace=2 allows backspacing over line breaks, autoindent and the start of insert. And the syntax on switches on vim's semantic colouring.