Whats the difference between all the os...

Alpha
AMD64
ARM
HP PA-RISC
Intel x86
Intel IA-64
MIPS (big endian)
MIPS (little endian)
PowerPC
IBM S/390
SPARC

Im sure this is a stupid question... would like to know which one to down load... i have a laptop 2g processor i would like to start using unix

Those are not operating systems, they're different architectures/machine types you'll need to know which one your own machine belongs to, then download the correct setup disc (set) for that.

For example among "normal IBM-compatible" PC machines there are at the moment both 32-bit and 64-bit processors, and for 32-bit you can use only 32-bit (x86) OS. For 64-bit (in some cases called x86_64) you can use either 32-bit or 64-bit; only 64-bit will take "full advantage" of the hardware, but on the other hand, some programs might not yet work fully or at all in a 64-bit operating system. Then in addition there are other sorts of computers than just those "IBM-compatible" PCs..

EDIT: I'm sure sites like Wikipedia can tell you more about each one of those machine types. In the end they're all just plastic and metal (maybe rubber etc. too), circuits and electonic parts, but assembled in their own ways, and because they thus work in "their own way", the operating system that operates between the user and the actual hardware, needs to be a little different depending on the hardware.

As stated above, you asked about CPU architectures, not about OS's. Since you already have the laptop, you don't have much choice of architecture. Your laptop is only compatible with one or maybe two of the architectures you listed.

Since you didn't say what your laptop is, we can't really be sure. But I think we can be 99% sure that your laptop is compatible with X86 and nearly that sure that an X86 OS is your best choice.

Probably your laptop is also compatible with AMD64 (more commonly called X86_64) but most likely you will be better off with an X86 OS rather than an X86_64 OS. If your laptop is compatible with X86_64 then those are your only two architecture choices (X86 or X86_64). No other architecture OS will work at all.

The laptop is a toshiba m60 2g

thanx for you help... take care

This is the iso i am downloading

debian-update-4.0r3-amd64-CD-3.iso

http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/.../amd64/iso-cd/