How does this game compare to EQ1 (EQLive)?

EQ2 is not as "hardcore" as EQ1, which is the definition of a traditional MMO, with most of it's tedious time sinks still intact. The interface in EQ2 is easier to navigate. Downtime for power (mana) and health regeneration is drastically lower. There are no corpse runs.

Grouping is not necessary for any class, and there are no "Holy Trinity" type class balance issues. EQ2 has much more solo content for all classes, and all classes can solo efficiently (some more so than others, though). You can log in for an hour or less and accomplish something meaningful. There are many more quests and they're much easier to keep track of and progress. EQ2 is not as Raid oriented as EQ1 has become. EQ2 can be more restrictive in terms of places to level and level requirements on gear, but the Echos of Faydwer expansion address that with new content for all levels.

What types of servers are there?

Standard PvE

Roleplayig PvE
There are 2 of these, Antonia Bayle and Lucan De'Lere.
They are both quite high population.

PvP Standard (Queynos vs. Freeport)

PvP Roleplaying (Queynos vs. Freeport)
PvP servers were started about 18 months after the initial launch

Exchange Servers (PvP and PvE)
Players can buy and sell to each other for real money.
You cannot move characters to or from these servers.

My method of crafting pristine at the fastest rate is as follows:

First of all, I craft naked (actually I wear a fancy casual dress that has no stats). I have a hotbar set up with my tradeskill arts for progress and durability and I set it to the first hotbar slot so I use the number key row to cast the arts. When I start an item I use all three of my best progress buffs each round. (Note that your best buff is not necessarily attached to your highest level art. Look at your lower level sets to see if they add more progress or durability.) A round has started when you see the numbers float up showing your progress and durability changes. At that point hit all three and stop. You can que up arts, so hit all three in succession right away. It is not necessary or helpful to spam them all as fast as you can recast them. If I get an event at the beginning of a round I counter it, wait for the icon to go green and then hit the other two buffs if practical. If you're using more than one level make sure you hit the same level or higher to successfully counter. Countering can add an element of delay if you need the same counter you hit last while the recast timer for that art runs down, and may throw off the pattern for a round or two if you try to get the other two in, so you might want to skip hitting any more arts that round to avoid missing an event counter in the next. It would be exceedingly awful if you messed up countering a Favor of Innovation. When durability dips down below the last third of the highest bar, I switch to durability buffs to bring it back up near the top, then go back to progress. As you near the home stretch you can concentrate on progress more to finish off the item, bearing in mind that a bad round will knock off about half a bar of durability when you're using progress buffs. If the worst happens and your durability drops you to the next lower bar (losing pristine) you will almost always be able to bring it back up using your durability buffs because your progress will be drastically slowed down.

Using this method I get pristine 99% of the time, only failing if I get multiple critical failures (not counting the times I get distracted by Real Life. :P ) I also make things fast enough to successfully complete the hardest timed tradeskill writs every time.

How do I start tradeskills?

If you're still on the Newbie Island, hail the NPC behind the desk at the top floor of the tradeskill instance, where you zone in. If you've moved on to your starting town, you will need to join a wholesaler society (There is one in each town) and hail the NPC at the bottom of the stairs in Qeynos, or at the top in Freeport. He will give you the level 2 recipe book and allow you to start crafting. There is an NPC in the wholesaler instance who will offer you the "Choosing a Profession" quest which will net you all 3 - 9 recipe books for free, and a tradeskill tunic that gives +1 to all crafting skills. You may want to harvest a couple dozen of each item on the newbie island or in the outlying quest zones in your city (e.g. Oakmyst Forest or The Graveyard) before you begin the quest.

How do I take up a secondary tradeskill? How do they work?

Secondary tradeskills are learned from NPC's on the ButcherBlock docks or in Kelethin (Yes, you have to own Echos of Faydwer). They are skill based rather than leveled. You get a chance at skillup by for each item you craft, and the crafting process is the same as for primary tradeskills. Transmuters can get skillups by transmuting items up to skill level 100. Your skill cap is limited by the higher of either your adventuring or tradeskill level, set at 5 skill points per level (max 350). Recipes are skill level based and get easier as you raise the skill. Recipe books are purchased from the group of NPC's that taught you the trade. You can drop either trade and learn the other by talking to a teacher, but you lose all skill earned and start from scratch.