Struggling with the basics

[Stephen Allen]

I would prefer to use FreeBSD rather than Linux - if nothing else, for
simplicity (different Linux flavours are just too different).  However,
I'm struggling to keep interested because I can't get the basics set up
correctly.

All this... at the console itself:

a) vi/vim doesn't display the info bar at the bottom of the screen
b) vi/vim doesn't seem to do syntax highlighting
c) bash doesn't seem to do color highlighting, eg. ls
d) Shift+3 gives a hash+newline, instead of a pound symbol
e) Still can't type a euro symbol despite trying ISO-8859-15 from kbdmap
f) The 'Delete' key operates as the 'Backspace' key instead of normal
delete-right

I realise the answer is probably more to do with the configuration of
each package, but I don't get the same problems in Linux.  They all look
so simple, but they're playing havoc with my ability to work properly on
FreeBSD.

Any help anyone can give would be most appreciated.

Many thanks,
Steve :)