Vi partially installed by default

Thank you for your bug report. However, what you describe is not a bug. The vi installed by default (vim-tiny) is a full-featured, traditional vi; just not a full-featured "vim". All of the symptoms you have described are normal for a traditional vi, except for the claim that ex line commands (":q!") are not displayed, which I cannot reproduce (are you certain that your entire terminal emulator is visible on the screen?). Note that displaying the current mode ("-- INSERT --") is controlled by the 'showmode' option, which in a traditional vi is disabled by default.

vim-tiny is the default vi in Ubuntu because it is commonly expected for a Unix to have vi available, so a basic and traditional one has been provided. However, the full power (and space consumption) of vim-full was not appropriate for the basic install, since the default editor is nano, and users who prefer vim(-full) can simply install it.

Discussion as to whether this decision is appropriate is fine, but this is not the forum for such a discussion; use the ubuntu-devel-discuss mailing list instead (but note that, prior to taking this action, it was of course discussed).

I had the same issues once I upgraded to Fiesty - arrow keys generated carriage return and keypresses.
I assume this is a new choice since Fiesty then, as vi (vim) in previous versions of Ubuntu used not to do this.

I believe it's since Edgy.

Thanks for clearing this up Micah!

   I Didn't ever realize there were different versions of vi, I assumed vim was just the proper package name for vi. Also, I wasn't aware nano was the default editor for ubuntu, I guess I should read up and start learning nano.

Meh; I wouldn't if I were you.

Nano is the default because it's a fairly straightforward editor to use. But vim or emacs (or indeed, even a traditional vi) are much, much more powerful.

First thing I do whenever I install Ubuntu is to install vim-full or vim-gnome. :)

Before installing the full version of vi I had issues even editing files. The arrow keys gave the normal strange behavior others have mentioned, but also typing would alternate between caps/uncaps, 'd' in insert mode would delete lines, and I was unable to put a carriage return at the end of a file. Installing the full version did remedy all of the issues, but it was a good 15 minutes of searching around for the solution.