Some hints which don't fit elsewere at the moment

If you want to change your keyboard layout (if the us default has been installed) to e.g. a german layout:

1. dpkg-reconfigure locales (choose the locale you need, e.g. German
2. dpkg-reconfigure console-data
   1. OK
   2. choose keymap from list
   3. querz
   4. German
   5. Standard
   6. latin1 - no dead keys
   7. OK

You can easy specify (for all users) what editor should be used:

# shows what's configured:
update-alternatives --display editor
 
# joe will be the standard editor to be used:
update-alternatives --set editor /usr/bin/joe 
 
# or to use vim instead:
update-alternatives --set editor /usr/bin/vim.basic