A portable device is connected to a host system that operates according to a first industry standard architecture (e.g., a personal computer built according to the IBM Personal Computer standard). The user initiates a session in the host system using the software and data in the portable device. The user suspends the state of the session, the state is stored in the portable device, and the user disconnects the portable device from the host. The user later connects the portable device to a second host that operates according to a second industry standard architecture (e.g., Apple Macintosh™ computer). The second host boots an autoconfiguring host operating system stored in the portable device and starts a virtual machine layer also stored in the portable device. The user then resumes operation of the suspended virtual machine layer session.