WHat would you say that the smallest distros are that fit the following conditions: 1.can work with the regular Ubuntu/Debian app images 2. has relatively newish browser versions and 3. works in a VM.
Which Distro?
It doesnt have to be only 1 distro, ofc, can also be a few of them, but what do you think those would be?
Sounds like a fairly basic Debian use case to me. You can just install the base system, a super light interface like LXDE or openbox and a browser of your choice. I run firefox (there are dozens of us!), but chromium is available too.
Appimages are partially distro specific. Each appimage packager must decide the balance between bundled libraries and using the distros' packages. Simple applications are fine, but the more complex, the worse it becomes.
App Images aren't distro specific, did you mean .deb packages perhaps?
If you didn't I'd say something like Arch or Void (Rolling releases and you can slim them down to your heart's content), perhaps Gentoo even (where you can build the latest browser from source)
You could use Arch, run whatever you want in Docker instead of relying on AppImages or run AppImages just as well inside, even if that's buttery butter.
It appears you may be asking for help in choosing a linux distribution.
This is a common question, which you may also want to ask at /r/DistroHopping or /r/FindMeALinuxDistro
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