I imagine everyone's answer will begin with "It depends". I can only give you feedback on my workflow & setup.
My dev hardware is an external SSD (USB3) running Debian. I virtualized my dev environment using qemu/kvm.
I have several old laptops with no hard drives stationed at various offices. I just plug in, boot from the SSD and off to the races.
If I need a laptop while traveling, I just pull from the old laptops pile and remove it's hard drive. Good to go.
I do have minimum specs for the hardware:
1TB Samsung SSD (be sure the cable supports TRIM!)
16GB Memory (Virtualization)
nVidia graphics (hard to find those non-hybrid types)
decent screen size.
In addition to normal backups of the host & VM, I do a weekly image of the VM. This helps greatly against damage/loss of the SSD.
My dev hardware is an external SSD (USB3) running Debian. I virtualized my dev environment using qemu/kvm.
I have several old laptops with no hard drives stationed at various offices. I just plug in, boot from the SSD and off to the races.
If I need a laptop while traveling, I just pull from the old laptops pile and remove it's hard drive. Good to go.
I do have minimum specs for the hardware: 1TB Samsung SSD (be sure the cable supports TRIM!) 16GB Memory (Virtualization) nVidia graphics (hard to find those non-hybrid types) decent screen size.
In addition to normal backups of the host & VM, I do a weekly image of the VM. This helps greatly against damage/loss of the SSD.
Hope this helps