Learning about Dude

RouterOS Beginner Basics
1

Am I correct in saying that the Dude only runs on certain hardware but that includes the x86 environment? And if so, is it possible to run it in a VMware virtual environment? That would be a great way to experiment as you can set up multiple virtual networks for testing VLAN etc.

But did I also see that the trial license only runs for 24 hours?

2

The answer to each of your questions is yes.
For testing/learing/evaluating, you should consider deploying a CHR instance via ova in your ESX environment. It doesn’t have a 24h limit but is limited to 1MBps throughput in unlicensed state.
-Chris