Vim is not reading gzipped files automatically

Vim is perfectly able to open gzipped files by default, see :help gzip.

If it's not possible in your case, you should see:

• if the machine has the gzip program,
• if you have the right permissions to use it,
• if your Vim comes with the the gzip standard plugin which should be located at /usr/share/vim/vim*/plugin/gzip.vim and its companion in /usr/share/vim/vim*/autoload/gzip.vim.

Reading compressed files transparently is handled by the gzip vim plugin. This plugin is only enabled when vim is not in "compatible" mode (see :help compatible for more details). An easy way to ensure "compatible" is not set, is to create an empty .vimrc file in your home directory.