If you are thinking on learning about SharePoint 2010 you probably wish to have a Test environment. For that you will need to define your requirements but so far I understand that for learning purposes the following would sufice:

• Single Server installation (DB and SharePoint in the same server)
• SharePoint Foundation2010 (replaces Windows SharePoint Services 3.0)

SharePoint comes with it own DB, it is called Embedded SQL Server 2008 Express. But that DB is limited to 4GB per database. You can also download the SQL Server 2008 Express (notice: without the Embedded), it is also free and has no storage limit.

Important: you need to install the SQL Server 2008 Express before installing SharePoint Foundation.

If you would like to setup your test environment on a virtual machine you will need a 64-bit version of VMware Workstation running on a 64-bit Windows 7.

Important: After installing the SQL Server 2008 Express check for updates and install them. After that proceed with setting up SharePoint Foundation.