Yes, if you're using vim through a terminal, or have to use vi on systems like Solaris, it's most definitely useful to know bare-bones vi. If you're on such a s

Yes, if you're using vim through a terminal, or have to use vi on systems like Solaris, it's most definitely useful to know bare-bones vi. If you're on such a system, it's often the only thing you have besides 'ed'. Been there, done that (I found HP/UX possibly even worse than Solaris in terms of usability, unbelievable as it may sound ;-). For the vast majority of newcomers to vim, none of this matters though. They will be using gvim, MacVim or win32 vim exclusively, and probably wouldn't be very comfortable working on a Solaris or HP/UX box remotely anyway. SSH-ing between Linux or OS X boxes, or using a decent Windows terminal client, there really isn't any problem if you use the arrow keys, and if all you do is local editing on a desktop system, using the mouse to select text is a good way to start before learning all the different ways to cut/copy/paste using command mode.