I think visual mode has existed as long as vim existed, and vi was what didn't have it. When I first started at my company, we did all work on shared VMs, and

I think visual mode has existed as long as vim existed, and vi was what didn't have it. When I first started at my company, we did all work on shared VMs, and the system vimrc had that "mouse" setting enabled. Something an employee had done decades ago to be helpful, really confused me until I realized what was going on. I'm thinking your distro, not vim, is what flipped the setting.