I believe the photo you posted earlier w/ the canards further from the wing provide a greater pitch stability which is needed for "general" aviation type planes that dont have fly-by-wire computer systems.
Fighter jets are typically un-stable until you install and fine tune the fly-by-wire system. The in-stability allows for greater manueverability and the shorter distance between the canards and the main wing allow more control authority with less stabillity, which equates to more manueverability.