In vim, you can have the tab key print 4 (or n) space characters, have movement keys jump over the 4 spaces like they would with tab characters, and delete the 4 spaces with one keystroke the same way. I don't remember the settings right now but I'll add them to this post when I get home.
please do... when I looked it, I was only able to find how to insert n spaces, and delete n spaces with a single keypress, but I sorely missed the ability to have the arrow keys jump :)
Actually, I'm not sure if I figured out how to make the movement keys treat spaces as tabs, I guess I normally end up using 0/b/$/^ if I need to navigate around them (sorry!). These settings are what I use, and will at least change backspace to delete 4 spaces in one keystroke instead of 4, which is what always annoyed me most.
set tabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set softtabstop=4
set expandtab
