There are some changes i always make on any linux systems I come across, especially if i have an account on the box. My favourite editor is Nano so i always have my .nanorc for syntax highlighting and other nice features. It makes it much easier for scripting work. For example add the following section for nice php colour highlighting:

.nanorc

syntax "php" "\.php[2345s~]?$"
color brightblue "(.*)\("
color blue "\$[a-zA-Z_0-9$]*|[=!<>]"
color green "(var|class|function|echo|case|break|default|exit|switch|if|else|elseif|@|while)\s"
color green "[.,{}();]"
color red "('.*')|(\".*\")"
color brightyellow "(#.*|//.*)$"
color brightyellow start="/\*" end="\*/"
color brightblue "(<\?(php)?|\?>)"
color white start="\?>" end="<\?(php)?"

.bashrc

COLOR1="\[\033[0;36m\]"
COLOR2="\[\033[0;32m\]"
COLOR3="\[\033[0;36m\]"
COLOR4="\[\033[1;37m\]"
if [ "$UID" = "0" ];
then
# I am root
COLOR2="\[\033[1;31m\]"
fi
PS1="$COLOR2($COLOR3\u@\h$COLOR2:$COLOR1\W$COLOR2)$COLOR1\\$ $COLOR4"