Last year I purchased a new Macbook which uses the M2 chip. I haven't come across any questions when installing apps, since most sites just give a MacOS option. But currently, Apple has active support for two types of MacOS computers (laptop, desktop, minis) - the Intel computers which are older and being phased out, and the newer computers with M-series processors. For some sites that are more technical or detailed, this has changed the way they display install instructions for their software, because the file types could be different between the two types of MacOS options.
I bet most sites determine your computer's processor and just display the right option automatically. But the Java site currently does not. It gives you two options for MacOS Java downloads (well actually they give you four). Below is a screenshot of what you will see if you download it from Oracle's site.
Looking at it, there are two main types of install files here: ARM64 and x64. What does this mean?
If you have an Intel MacOS computer, you'll want to install the x64. This is the traditional way to refer to the Intel processors (if you're old enough, you'll remember x86 being the 32-bit version). x64 is the 64-bit version of an install file, which probably won't matter these days since most computers out there do not use the 32-bit operating systems. AMD64 is another option for this type of architecture.
If you have a MacOS M-series computer though, you'll want to get the ARM64 file. Some You sometimes may see "aarch64", and this is the same thing as ARM64. This type of file is what you will want if you download to a computer with Apple silicon.
How can you tell which you have if you are using a Macbook? Well find the "About Your Mac" menu and take a look at the processor if comes with. If it says Chip Apple M1 Pro (or M2, M3, soon to be M4...), that means you will want the ARM64/aarch64 file.
Otherwise it would give you an Intel chip type by saying something along the lines of Intel Core i5 (or i3, i7, and i9). These are various Intel chip levels, and you'd want the x64 file type.
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