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Presenting some simple tweaks to make Ubuntu 18 a little more friendly.

Sort order

Out of the box, the Ubuntu sort order ignores case. This may be convenient for Windows users, but it's not the Unix way. Add this to ~/.bashrc to restore the sort algorithm that respects case.

export LC_COLLATE=C

Display of filenames

GNU Coreutils 8.25 changed the way that filenames are displayed when there is a space in the filename. In direct contravention of 45 years of historical Unix precedent, those filenames are now displayed encased in single quotes by default. To re-establish traditional Unix behavior, add this to ~/.bashrc.

export QUOTING_STYLE=literal

Default system editor

The default system editor is 'nano'. From the command line, this will set it to the more Unixly-correct 'vi':

sudo apt-get install nvi
sudo update-alternatives --set editor /usr/bin/nvi