passthejoe by Steven Rosenberg | Derek Sivers' minimal .vimrc is only 4 lines long

Derek Sivers' minimal .vimrc is only 4 lines long

13 November, 2025

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text editors

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Vim

By Steven Rosenberg

In Hyde's Lazybear blog's Over/Under #37 featuring Derek Sivers, they both agree that Vim is underrated:

Derek says about Vim:

I’m out to learn, to challenge myself, to be more self-reliant. So my .vimrc is just 4 lines:

syntax on<br>filetype plugin on<br>filetype indent on<br>set autoindent

My "normal" .vimrc is very long, though my OpenBSD .vimrc is now zero lines, so this should work for me.