Unfortunately, the remote features require a GUI version of vim. Personally, I prefer to run vim in a tab of my terminal.
vim --servername FOO
vim --servername FOO --remote-tab ~/.bashrcYou do have to have an X server available though; the client/server communication occurs via X.
On my mac I end up using MacVim mostly so that my Vim and Terminal apps can be considered separate apps for the purpose of things like spaces, and it just seemed to integrate a little better with the Mac infrastructure.
But in general I haven't found a reason to prefer a GUI version over a terminal version when a sufficiently capable terminal is available.
- The excellent "solarized" colour scheme only works properly with 24-bit color unless you're willing to mess with the terminal palette and break all your other terminal apps. No terminal I know of supports 24-bit color.
- I have a handy keybinding that cycles through open windows and tabs, I find it makes the most sense bound to Ctrl-Tab and Ctrl-Shift-Tab. Neither key can be bound in any terminal I know of.
I haven't had any trouble binding <ctrl>-based combinations. All my window-manager commands are based on <super>, leaving <alt> and <ctrl> open for other things. I assume <ctrl-tab> is conflicting with tab swapping in gnome-terminal or something similar.