"just a little better than edlin?" Ms Cuddles, you owe me a cup of coffee which I
just dropped

Yes, vi can be more than confusing to the uninitiated, and it does take time to
find one's way with it. It has that in common with the command line interface:
difficult to master at first, but awesome raw power after that.

For a first guided tour, type "vimtutor" at the command line.

(ok, donning my asbestos underwear: let the editor flames begin!