Is it normal to run into a natural earth born person?
Sol system has a population of 22.78 billion - one of the highest in the game. Sol also has other planets in it besides Earth; those 22 billion people are spread across the whole system. Unfortunately, while planets do apparently have a locally specified population statistic, we can't see it, so we have to assume and guess. Let's assume that one-third of that total population live on Earth, one-third on Mars, and one-third in the rest of the system. That still puts 7.59 billion people on Earth - roughly the population of 21st century Earth, prior to WWIII.
According to the EDSM summary page, there are 6.64 trillion humans in the known galaxy. So, one out of every 875 people in the entire galaxy, live on Earth. On that basis, Earthpeople aren't very scarce.
However, even in a pan-galactic civilization where space travel is cheap and easy, very few people ever actually move from planet to planet. Most of those people on Earth, were probably born there, and very few of them ever leave, except perhaps for holidays and even then it's usually just a quick trip out to Mars or Jupiter for most of them. Mars, being the Federation capital, probably has a higher turnover of people as diplomats and bureaucrats come and go, but Earth is a museum planet, a place of pilgrimage. Earth is by far the most popular tourist destination in the galaxy; every human (even Imperials and other anti-Federation types) wants to visit it at least once in their life.
So, no, it's not common to meet an Earth-born, especially one who is a genuine spacer rather than a tourist. While plenty of people want to visit Earth, there's very little reason for most Earthers to visit other planets. The Imperial Tourist Agency tries really hard to encourage Earthlings to go on a package tour of Capitol, as part of Imperial indoctrination policy, and it's probably the most popular tourist destination outside of Federation space.
How do commanders get their first Ship? ... Is it normal for people not to have a ship?
This question is more difficult than it sounds, as it does feed back into the whole
debate on "how much is a credit worth". If the 32,000 credits you need to buy a starter Sidewinder is something equivalent to 21st century $32,000, then access to your first ship is as simple as walking into your local shipyard and saying "I'll take one of those, thanks". But if, as I surmised in the linked thread, 1 credit equals about US$270, then 32,000 credits equals $8.64 million, outside the price range of most Earthlings (and most other humans, for that matter), and buying one would be a much bigger deal than buying a car.
Before they let you fly a ship, you first need a pilot's license from the Pilots Federation. I don't know how much it costs to become a Pilots Federation member, but given that they throw in free insurance for billion-credit starships that have a tendency to explode every few weeks, I suspect the price is rather high.
What is life on a ship Like? Do they have food and water and latrines onboard?
Life on board a ship is actually quite comfortable, by 21st-century-space-shuttle standards. Plenty of room, with all the mod-cons. There's water (recycled of course) for drinking, showering and the toilet. Food is whatever the CMDR chooses to bring aboard; the ship comes with a fully stocked autochef, capable of printing (from food cartridges) anything you'd care to name. Though of course if they're going out into the black for months or years, you aren't going to be able to bring along enough supplies for the whole trip. That's why the food can be "recycled", too: according to lore, every ship comes with a Tiolce waste-2-paste unit installed, which converts solid wastes back into an edible paste. If you don't believe me, go to Tiolce and read the description for the Rare Good sold there. This makes a 34th century spaceship a rather efficient "closed system" from a food, air and water point of view.
Are normal everyday pilots aware of things like neutron star jumps?
Normal pilots, as in regular in-Bubble A-B-A traders, don't need to know such things. The fact that the error message pops up when neutron jumping, about "operating beyond safety parameters", implies that the manufacturers don't encourage it happening, though I'd be surprised if they were unaware that people were doing it anyway. Explorers, on the other hand, will probably go bar-hopping before they go, trying to pick the brains of any old, grizzled, burnt-out explorer they can find. Those guys know all about neutron jumps, so they'd tell you.
Is there widespread use of personal weapons?
Here, the Old Lore and New ED Lore are inconsistent. Old Lore said that, while personal weapons were outlawed in the Federation, they were legal in the Empire. Not just legal, but mandatory, as part of the ubiquitous and deadly duelling culture. But under New Lore, lethal weapons are banned in the Empire, too. This inconsistency has never been satisfactorily explained, so one can probably assume the Old Lore has been retconned away, sadly.
While lethal weaponry is outlawed in most places, non-lethal weaponry has largely taken its place. Weapons that stun, shock, immobilize and otherwise not-kill your opponent are ubiquitous, and legal everywhere. Given that they've had 1300 years to improve their effectiveness, I'd reckon they'd be 99.9% reliable in stopping a mugger, robber, home-invader etc without the need for use of deadly force. So, except for the military where deadly force would still be necessary, non-lethal weapons would have largely replaced lethal weapons in most of the civilized galaxy.
What common knowledge do citizens have about the Thargoids?
They're on Galnet; everybody can read Galnet. While the First Thargoid War seems to have been covered up, to the extent that many people believed it was either a hoax or fake history, the current one seems to be fully in the public eye.
What source of power do stations typically use? Solar, Nuclear, ect...
I believe everything in ED runs on hydrogen-powered fusion reactors, from our tiny SRVs to the giant space stations and cities. That's why they all need hydrogen fuel. Space stations also often have solar arrays, which are presumably there for an alternative energy source.
what does the average person know about "ancient earth" history?
Since "everyone wants to go to Earth", it seems that everyone has a basic knowledge of their origins: that Earth is our homeworld, and their ancestors came from Earth to found their colony world. For specifics about Earth history, like who won the 2036 World Series, or where Gibraltar was, or who started the Franco-Prussian War, it's impossible to tell. Earth did suffer a catastrophic war in the 2050s, and some information may have been lost, but enough survived that I don't think it qualified as a "dark age" in which large chunks of knowledge were lost forever.
Are there any media such as music or tv that pilots watch or listen to on the Ship?
We seem to have instant comms, so sure, radio/tv/internet analogues would exist. Emergent-content movements like Lave Radio and Radio Sidewinder have made it into the game, so I'd assume this could be taken as canon.
What is the general culture of the federation Like?
Life seems to be quite good for most of the population, though not as rosy as, say, the Star-Trek-Federation. Everyone has work, practically no-one is starving, poor or homeless (which isn't too bad, given the above-stated population of Earth being the same as ours, but with most people on Earth living in abominable conditions), but on the other hand, it's very difficult to actually make gains and rise through the bureaucracy. Federation culture is highly bureaucratic: everyone is a cog-in-the-machine, you are just a number. This is evidenced in-game by the nomenclature of Federation space stations. Everyone else puts the station name in big, bold letters that can be read from over a kilometer away; the Federation on the other hand puts the Starbase Number (eg. "FSP#8072") in huge lettering, with the actual station name in tiny print near the door.
The Federation is also highly plutocratic; perhaps an inevitable consequence of the permeation of Corporate culture into Federation democracy. The strong emphasis on money - where getting more money is seen as "progressing" through life - is also evident in the station voice-over announcers, which tend to emphasize how much money you'll lose if you break the law: "Crashes cost; kill your speed, not your credit balance". Compare this to the Empire, where the emphasis is placed more on "public decorum" and how improper breaking the law is, while in the Indies, it's simply "obey station law, or we will kill you".
I hope this helps with your questions.
