Until version 13.1 of Slackware, one of the first things I did is roll vim back to vim 6.4 due to changes made to v7+. This time I decided to spend time to get all new defaults off.
I found a site (below) that details how to get rid of the new v7+ defaults. Between that site and my own experimenting I think I got vim 7+ to work the way it should. In case this site disappears, the file below contains the settings to append to the end of your .vimrc to 'fix' it.
Site describing the "new" vim defaults (http)
What I do to disable "new" vim defaults. (gemini)
If you use statements like 'autocmd BufRead', that sometimes reverts vim back to the "new" defaults for vim 7+. So if the settings do not work for you, you will need to experiment.
There is one new default I do like, with v7+ it remembers where you were in a file and positions you there when you edit it again, cool.
$Id: vim.gmi,v 2.2 2023/10/17 15:12:06 jmccue Exp $