Tail dragger
Advantages: low weight, low drag
Disadvantages: less positive ground handling, nose over will damage prop

Trike
Advantages: More positive ground handling, protects (sometimes) prop in nose over
Disadvantages: increased weight & drag

Both styles work well on any typical runway surface, but takeoff/landing procedure is a bit different. Most notibly with a tail dragger you must apply a bit of up elevator on high drag surfaces such as grass to prevent nose overs. No big deal once you are used to it. As for which is better... that all depends on what you want.