Yeah Rangdong gives a good summary. Most of my experience is also from trekking and mountaineering. I have a MSR Whisperlite International, a Jetboil and a Snowpeak titanium canister stove. I have also owned and used a range of other stoves, and used others with mates and other people on trips. The choice comes down to the nature of your trip really.
A canister stove is good for general low weight and small pack size (at least when you don’t need any more fuel than what is in one canister) and ease of use. I use mine quite a bit. But only ever really for short trips where I care more about weight than anything else. They can be unstable for cooking, and are fucking annoying when it is cold (or high, or both) to get good pressure, especially when the can is getting low. Sometimes sleeping with the canister in the foot of your sleeping bag can keep it warm enough for your morning cuppa. And if they break then generally you are stuffed. Very few are user maintainable. They’re also shit when there is any sign of wind. And for many you can’t use a metal windshield as it can lead to the canister overheating and exploding. If it is cold and windy, trying to boil a litre of water can be very annoying.
As between brands, I think Optimus or Snowpeak make the better ones, but it is much of a muchness. The PocketRocket is also good, but I find it a bit unstable. But in the end it comes down to size and weight more than any other feature between brands. A piezo automatic ignition can be good. But I never rely on one, as they do break. I always carry one of these: Light My Fire - We sell fire
A multi-fuel stove like the Whisperlite is good for travelling (you can always at least find kerosene or unleaded petrol anywhere in the world), absolute reliability (you can strip down the whole stove and carry replacement parts for everything), stability (the base is more stable and better with larger pots than a canister stove) and also a very good flame. I have never had too much trouble with the lack of simmer capability. I have eaten probably a thousand meals out of my Whisperlite and many of those have been absolutely delicious. You just need to be a bit more active in your stirring and lifting of the pot, and sometimes work with bottle pressure to keep a low flame. Since a multi-fuel stove has the fuel bottle removed from the burner, you can set up a good windshield around the burner without any risk of overheating the bottle. Most, including the Whisperlite, come with good lightweight aluminium foil windshields. I have used my Whisperlite in some pretty extreme conditions in the mountains.
If you are on a long trip outside any civilisation then a multi-fuel stove is the best option. If anything breaks, you can generally fix it. If you need to carry heaps of fuel, then you can carry one fuel bottle and keep the rest of the fuel in lightweight plastic containers. If you run out of fuel outside of a major city then you have more options for things to burn.
I haven’t had too much trouble travelling with the gas bottle, but many of my friends have lost theirs. I wrap mine in gaffa tape so it doesn’t look so toxic. Sometimes I have written “WATER” on it with a marker pen and filled it with water (but be careful with this to make sure nobody drinks out of it), but generally I just clean it thoroughly and keep the cap off when I pack it.
As between brands, the Whisperlite International is very good. I like it for its simplicity, easy maintenance and general ease of getting replacement parts. The Dragonfly is good for simmering but is mother fucking loud as fuck. You literally need to yell over it when making tea. If you are ever sharing a hut and need to wake up early then making coffee with the Dragonfly is a good way to get people hating you fast. It is also slightly more complicated to maintain, given the simmering mechanism. Optimus also make a very good simmering multifuel stove in the Nova. The MSR XGK is also very good for reliability and excellent flaming with a range of fuels, but like the Dragonfly it is ridiculously loud.
Boiler stoves like the Jetboil and MSR Reactor are a specialty product made specifically for use with freeze-dried meals in situations when speed and ease of use are the main criteria. To be honest, I now only use my Jetboil when I’m car camping and exclusively as a coffee-maker. I like my morning coffee to be made really fast. For anything else it is a bit crap. It is just a canister stove but heavier (depending on the pot you use), so it is crap in the cold, although it does have a built-in windshield. And I find the proprietary pot system annoying.
Metho stoves like the Trangia are for beard-stroking idiots who are happy to spend an hour in the morning making their breakfast, and have the time to make camp 3 hours before sun down so that they can get dinner ready. After a really long and hard as hell day when all you want is a cup of tea and dinner before crashing out you will fucking hate the fact you bought a Trangia.