Because I was a vimmer sometime ago, and I keep using it when I forget to change the appropiate environment variable.
Line and tabs related stuff
set nocompatible
set rnu
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set expandtab
set softtabstop=4
set autoindent
set smartindent
set cursorline
Syntax, encoding and colors
syntax enable
set encoding=utf-8
set t_Co=256
set mouse=
set bg=dark
colorscheme desert
Search defaults
set ignorecase
set smartcase
Highlight trailing spaces
highlight ExtraWhitespace ctermbg=red guibg=red
au InsertLeave,BufWinEnter * match ExtraWhitespace /\s\+$/
au ColorScheme * highlight ExtraWhitespace ctermbg=red guibg=red
Status bar
set laststatus=2
set noshowmode
Bindings
inoremap jk <Esc>