Hello,there are a lot of packages in deb format published outside the Debian community (esp. by some distributions, but also by some so called upstream projects).
The deb format is an open standard.But there are some differences between Debian packages and packages using the deb format.
So it may be usefull (but not easy) to study what a Debian package really is. It increases the quality.
Kind regards Michael, who is still studying how to package software for Debian
