Maybe you had this problem already: you use Debian or Ubuntu Linux and a software package that you like to install is only available in RPM format. The solution is a handy tool called alien, which converts .rpm files to .deb. Installing alien:
apt-get install alien
Converting a rpm package to debian format:
alien --to-deb /tmp/mysoftwarefile.rpm
Conversions from .deb to rpm are also possible:
alien --to-rpm /tmp/mysoftwarefile.deb
How to convert RPM software packages to Debian (.deb)
About every month or two, such an item appears.
Packages created by alien may work, if you happen to have
all the dependencies installed.
If not, you’re out of luck! Alien doesn’t give any help at all.