I would say neither. a newbie at linux can EASILY install LS since it's binary and needs no compilation. thus no need for dependencies of any sort..
And at some point you will want to have php5 instead of 4 which is when you learn howto from reading the many tutorials on the net.
Managing the server is well.. simply the best interface so far. IT beats windows IIS. The only negative thing with LS is that not so many use it thus making it hard to optimize your configuration to fit your hardware. Sure the standard settings are "ok" but it wont go great with every hw configuration out there...