virtual format for maximum portability.
So I have been contemplating virtualizing my day to day and running it on my host with the thought I could upload it to a cloud for various reasons. Thing is I would like to use a virtual machine but I want something that could be moved anywhere without any modification. So I sorta feel I would have to go with a container but again I sorta prefer a standar vm. Im just looking for peoples thoughts.
You should look into "Configuration as code", where you use automation via various methods and store the code in a git repo. The other commenter in the thread is a good example of this methodology, using Terraform and Ansible, but there are many ways to do this.
I've had similar thoughts some several months ago, but I haven't even figured out how to get a stable desktop environment in a VM (my experience with Linux is mostly in server-land). My overall approach for idempotency is a git repository that has a Terraform blueprint and an Ansible blueprint, and the whole kit is pointed at my home ProxMox cluster.
With this workflow I can lift and shift my entire localnet wherever I want in the future.
You could use a much simpler blueprint approach to accomplish your Desktop Environment VM. You'll want to externalize any data that won't get included in a blueprint rebuild (databases, games save files, media libraries, etc.).
Honestly that's a tempting idea... but then I remember that installing a fresh Debian on my desktop takes me 1h tops, swapping my /home directory and configuring few key software, in particular the browser, too so... for me, not worth it for now.
Also in practice maybe I make a fresh install once a year, at most. Otherwise it's quick Debian on remote machines, RPi, etc and then it's pretty much per machine configuration.
That being said if I were to do it I'd look at rsync with a set of ssh keys and Docker/podman for containerization of whatever services serve the data, potentially behind a VPN so that I can use it all remotely yet more securely. In practice though... that ends up being a centralized Web server, which I already use as https://fabien.benetou.fr/ and that's been good enough for me for years, more than a decade now actually.
Can you please elaborate a bit more on the use case and/or software you have in mind because maybe I don't properly understand your needs?
Its just an idea I had. To virtualize my general computing environment for day to day that does not need a lot of resources generally. So the idea is it would be great to run it on my laptop but like move it to a cloud provider when traveling and travel with a laptop that has nothing personal and then interacting remotely. So a combo of easy change of hardware combined with travel without personal info.
What about containers with desktop, e.g. https://docs.linuxserver.io/images/docker-firefox/ or another from https://www.linuxserver.io/our-images (based on Guacamole https://guacamole.apache.org/ AFAICT) with a mounted WebDAV (via e.g. NextCloud) for data?