I created a tool to make it easy to customize a #Debian Live #Linux environment for real-world use, enabling optional persistence and numerous quality-of-life improvements to an immutable OS. Boot up, run the script, and you're done.
https://gitlab.com/jcstaudt/debian-live
It runs in #GNOME or in a headless #server environment and is easy to configure a local apt-mirror repository, link persistent #VM images, customize package lists, and so on. I've been daily-driving this on my laptops/desktops/servers for 2 years.
A nice perk of using a configuration like this is that it eliminates the need to upgrade your system and be concerned about migration issues. To upgrade, simply re-flash the boot drive to the newer OS version and use the same script to configure it.