The only MMO's I've played long-term are the 2 Everquests and Rift. I'd say they all make fine choices. I don't currently play any and haven't for 2 years but still can offer an opinion.

Everquest is quite dated now. And you will be so far behind the masses that while it will initially be amazing, it will soon feel like work as there is a bit of a learning curve to it. But during its hey day, it was so much fun. Before games started to hand-hold and lead you to wherever you needed to go. Mind you, I'm completely fine with hand holding these days but back then, before the market was saturated with mmo's, we didn't know any better and it was the most amazing game out there.

Everquest 2 meets your criteria and is still the best mmo I've played. Paladins, rogues, fighters, clerics, necromancers and then some classes are available to you. Elves, dwarves, gnomes, humans and then some races are available. Each race has its own starting area from icy snowlands, to wooded tree huts to islands to evil foggy lands and what have you. Each new character you start will have its own quests and gear and skills that no 2 will feel the same for at least the first 20-40 levels. So much to do. So much to explore. So many quests. There's also mercenaries you can hire in town to help you in dungeons or quests/adventuring in general if you can't find a group. Oh, and crafting - from woodworking, weaponsmithing, armorcraft, carpentry, spellcraft, alchemy. 9 professions in total I believe. Crafters have their own questlines too. Oh, and player housing in this game is by far the best in any game bar none. I keep remembering all that this game offers and its a shame it never got the kind of fan base that WOW has.
Free to play has some restricitons. I'm not up to date on all of what you're limited by but there are some races, some classes, high level spells and fabled weapons I believe. You can subscribe to have access to it all or pay piecemeal to have access to certain things as needed. I believe inventory and what you can carry is also limited in free to play but every mmo has that restriction as its the most coveted.
Read up on it a little and see if its for you but I really don't think you can go wrong with it. Restrictions on most all free to play games are similar so you shouldn't have to make a decision solely on that factor.
If you choose this, and do get into it, play on Antonia Bayle server (PVE and roleplay friendly) as that's the one I played on and I can probably re-install it one day and provide you with money/gear and the like if you get attached to it. AB also is/was the most populated server and was very newbie friendly at one time. But with an aged game, might not be what it used to be (ie roleplay was already kind of being phased out and rp'ers often got mocked/bullied the more popular the server got - probably still be some rp exclusive guilds though if you're into that).
To me, EQ 2 also had the best and most customizable user interface. You can put windows/hotbars/anything wherever you want to in the UI.

I played Rift for about 7-8 months and enjoyed it for the most part but I was getting tired of mmo's about this time so when my last 3 month subscription expired, I quit and haven't looked back. This one probably has the least F2P restrictions. Might even be the most newbie and solo friendly but it has gone thru so many changes and updates since I stopped playing that I can't give you a better description of it. With it having gone F2P most recently, I imagine the lower levels are abuzz with activity again so that should help. The Rift thread on this forum should also help as I've skimmed it every now and then to see whats going on in that game.

Hope this wall of text was legible and gave you some better insight on the games I've played. Good luck choosing :).