Sort of tangental, but I know the command line tools are not GNU but are they otherwise outdated? I used to install various GNU coreutils packages but decided they weren't really adding anything and in some cases (ls) they were removing functionality.

> the system won't allow you to save hidden files (i.e. ".htaccess") and the list goes on.

I don't believe that is true, unless you're having problems with a specific editor?