> Selecting code and copy and pasting it into a chat client for discussion.
Note, due to HN's treatment of asterisks as formatting characters, I'm going to represent a literal asterisk as [asterisk].
In gvim, selecting code to copy into the system clipboard is as easy as "[asterisk]y plus the motion or text object (e.g. `"[asterisk]y3}' for the next three paragraphs or `"[asterisk]yat' for the current HTML/XML tag). You can even configure console vim to copy into the X clipboard: http://vim.wikia.com/wiki/Accessing_the_system_clipboard
> Grabbing someone else's code from a chat client and editing it, then copy and pasting it back to show them my interpretation.
I run vim and irssi from inside GNU screen, so it's as simple as `C-o [' (my screen prefix is `C-o') to access the scrollback buffer, spacebar to start selection, use screen's vim-like selection commands, spacebar again to yank the selection, switch screens, and then `C-o ]' to paste. The whole process is instinctive and takes no more than five seconds.
> Copying an error message and pasting it into a web browser.
See the above two answers.
> Installing or updating any kind of plugin or package.
The vundle package manager takes care of that.
> Doing anything out of the ordinary (vim users will be googling for the arcane sequence of commands and don't try the "no true scotsman" defence for that - they all do)
No, they'd most likely use some combination of the brilliantly orthogonal editing language that is Vim and the brilliantly orthogonal computing environment that is UNIX to reach a solution in time that would amaze a Windows user. In fairness, most Sublime users I know would do the same.
> Scrolling smoothly through a large file looking for a certain method you will know by shape.
How would Vim and Sublime differ on this one?
> Quickly navigating a tree of files at the side of the window.
Vim users do the same. It's called the NERD tree plugin. I personally find it faster to navigate with autojump from the command-line and then open files in vim from the command-line, but many Vim users like the tree approach.
> Changing the font to something post-1980.
You add a line to your ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources for console vim or to ~/.gvimrc for gvim. It's no harder than changing fonts in Sublime. I personally like 14-pt Bitstream Vera Sans Mono. It looks similar to Sublime's default iirc.
> Make it look good (this willl take infinite time)
I don't know if by "it" you mean the font or the colorscheme, but as with Sublime, some fonts and colorschemes are really nice and some aren't. It sounds like your criticism here, as with virtually all of your points, is that vim's default settings, unlike Sublime's, are not optimized for use as an IDE. That is correct. However, instead of bashing vim for this use case with uninformed, antagonistic statements like making it look good will take infinite time, all you have to do is ask or google how to configure vim for such a use case. A lot of vim plugin writers are ex-Sublime users, so it should be pretty easy to make vim simulate the default Sublime feature set, if you really wanted to. If you're more comfortable with Sublime, it makes total sense to stick with it. Perhaps Sublime Text's greatest strength is that its default configuration is excellent for software development. As you pointed out, typing isn't normally the bulk of development time, so if you're already happy with an editor, you really don't need to switch to a faster one. Just don't tell others who do use one that's said to be faster that you, someone who has only used their editor in a console/ssh capacity (and from the sound of it, a casual capacity at that), knows their editor's shortcomings for development better than they do.
> It's sort of like Linux vs MacOSX on the desktop. Linux people can and do customise their machines to an amazing extent, all sorts of crazy window managers and weird shell extensions, all promising great improvements in window management and shell completion, etc. But at the end of the day, I don't notice linux-using programmers as being any more productive, as a rule, than mac users, who tend to not fetishize the tool so much and just want to get on with the job.
I know quite a few Mac OS X users who care very much about their programming environment/toolset, and I do think they're more productive than those who don't.
> I admit I'm biased against vim because of how ugly it is
But it's not! If you're running it on ssh and if your console font is ugly, then yes, it will be ugly. But that's like saying that ST is ugly if you set it to use whatever ugly font your shell is set to. Vim is configurable, and a sane vim/gvim set-up looks clean and beautiful. Since you're a Linux server user, you should know the power of configuration!