I think some of what canyarion said was a bit off... So I'll answer your questions again
1. Yeah you pick your server, but once you pick it your character is stuck there (for now at least, I think a looot of people aren't happy with that and I don't see why blizzard couldn't change it somewhere down the line)... But you can have multiple characters on multiple servers...
2. Each race has a specific city they start out in, along with a capital city... But fairly early into the game you can go to another race's area and even do their quests... (For example, orcs have easy access to the undead area and vice versa via the zeppelin)...
Basically you can go anywhere and do any quests as long as it's on your side (horde/alliance)...
3. Yes the jobs you pick are set in stone... So you usually wanna know what you wanna be before choosing... You don't have to know this at the very beginning of the game though, you choose jobs after getting a little ways into the game and finding the required trainer...
4. As far as I know, there's no specializing in jobs, they advance with an overall rating... And that rating increases by using that certain skill... Skin animals and your skinning skill goes up, cook and your cooking skill goes up... But after awhile, 'recipies' give you less of a rating boost (eventually not giving you any at all), so you'll have to learn/find newer things to make...
5. And I dunno what you're talking about with this one either...
6. Nope
7. Canyarion, lay off night elf hunters!
I havn't noticed there being more hunters than there are other classes within the night elf race...
8. You have to set up some way of future payment to set up an account, so you'll need either a credit card or a pre-paid game card (or eventually paypal)... pre-paid game cards are non-returnable once they've been scratched off,, but credit cards aren't charged until the free month is over, so if you don't like the game you can simply cancel your account...
As for servers, RP servers have a strict set of rules... You gotta stay in character, and no using the general chat for random chatter... Meaning no crap like "LAG LAG GLGAGGG IS ANYBODY ELSE LAGGING!??!1" or if everyone had a nice christmas... But other than that, it's the same game... I guess just less distracting for those who want to be 'in character'...
I personally prefer the PvP servers, for the potential of an amazing PvP experience... However, at the moment they're plagued by level 27-30+ assholes with nothing better to do (you get nothing for PvPing, at least not at the moment) camping around contested territories traversed mainly by level 15-20-ish characters on the opposing side... Which ends up being an easy slaughter for the 27-30+ people...
But I read somewhere that eventually blizzard will impliment an honor system, rewarding players for doing PvP, and penalizing those who kill much lower level people... Along with other things that give me high-hopes for PvP servers in the future...