Using syntax enable and other vim commands in Ubuntu and Debian

So I ran into the strangest thing today. Vim complains because I tried to use 'syntax enable' in my .vimrc.

$ vim myfile.rb
Error detected while processing /home/solipsistic/.vimrc:
line    1:
E319: Sorry, the command is not available in this version: syntax enable
Press ENTER or type command to continue

Apparently Debian-like distributions don't package the full version of vim by default. They pack a 'lite' version.

# apt-get install vim

And you'll be rolling again.