/vendor - composer modules can be (and probably should) recompiled. Laravel comes with this line by default.
/node_modules - npm modules, same of /vendor.  Laravel comes with this line by default.

/app/storage - Laravel things that can be despised (in staging) like cache, views cache and sessions

Laravel 5 uses vlucas/phpdotenv for env configuration.
http://laravel.com/docs/5.0/configuration#environment-configuration
Previous version used env.php files. the new configuration files do not have
.php extension

Laravel4 is the current standard.

This resolves the name with the custom Laravel.gitignore file in the
gitignore.io project. If support for Laravel3 is desired, it should be done in
a new file: "Laravel3.gitignore

Closes #1196