Jon's description of coil and air, is spot on, air or coil is personal choice. Essentially coil gives you a very linear feel, the shocks compress and rebound equally and smoothly, ie. it requries the same amount of pressure to move the shock at any point along its stroke. Air springs require more pressure to move at different points in the stroke. Air require more pressure towards the end of the travel stroke to prevent bottoming out. ie, they are progressive along the stroke requiring more force to move the last mm of travel than the first few mm.
There are two types of damping, rebound and compression damping. Rebound damping controls how quickly the fork pushes back after a hit. compression damping is how quick the fork descends, this what people mean by plushness and how stiff the fork is.
Coil both ends for me, dont care how long it takes to get uphill, its coming down that counts