Personally, I'd go with the one on the left, if forced to choose from these two. That big recurve on the right would be a lot more difficult for me to sharpen. But that's just me...

You mention a special sharpening tool. That's fine, but even so, it's still a pain. If you're just starting out with knives, you may want to go with something a little more conventional (the straight edge), until you have enough experience to see the tradeoffs between the two.

The straight edge is a perfectly acceptable choice. And a recurve that big is going to make certain chores more difficult than the straight edge... it's a specialized blade shape designed for certain tasks... which means it'll be better at some things and worse at others. The straight edge is a great all around shape.