Your .vimrc might be tiny to start with:
set nocompatible
" Let me delete stuff while in insert mode:
set backspace=indent,eol,start
" Display commands as-typed + current position in file:
set showcmd
set ruler
" Display a visual menu for tab-completion of files:
set wildmenu
" Display tab characters as 8 spaces, indent 2 spaces,
" always use spaces instead of tabs:
set tabstop=8
set shiftwidth=2
set softtabstop=2
set expandtab
set autoindent