Herbs grow equally well in the ground or in containers. Many people grow containers with culinary herbs just outside their kitchen door to make plucking the herbs quick and easy while cooking.

Mint will take over your garden if you just plant it straight out so many people choose to plant it in a conatiner even if they end up planting the container into the ground.

I've never had any luck with rosemary from seed and prefer to start with cuttings (or storebought plants). Your mileage may vary.

Many herbs will survive outside over the winter but you should be able to keep the less cold tollerant herbs going in a sunny windowsill. Due to the diminished ammount of sunlight the herbs will go into a state of dormancy, even inside, and if you cut on them heavily do not expect the cut parts to regenerate until next spring when the plants can go back outside.

One last thing worth mentioning to a novice herb grower is that faster is not always better. Herbs can be coaxed into growing very quickly with enough fertilizer but for really flavorful and aromatic herbs you want to encourage slow growth by not enhancing the soil with too many nutrients.

It's hard to make blanket statements for all herbs. Herbs come from many plant genera and have many different growing requirements. Some perennial herbs need a period of cold (sometimes referred to as chill hours) that they cannot get inside, to do well the following growing season. Some herbs may require more light than they can usually get indoors (without supplemental lighting) even in their normal growing season. If you want to keep hardy perennial herbs from year to year, I would recommend growing and keeping them outside. Google the herbs that you are interested in growing and you should easily be able to identify their individual requirements and characteristics.

If you don't care about keeping the plant long term, almost any herb can be grown and maintained as an "annual" indoors. When the plant slows down, toss it and start a new one. Some herbs are better from younger plants anyway. If you do grow them indoors, use a well-drained soil mix that isn't too rich. If supplemental lighting is needed, I would use florescent lamps in the 4100K-6800K spectrum and make sure the neighbors know you aren't trying to grow wacky weed. Just make sure you have enough light to keep the plants growing well.