Newbie wants to install Flock on Etch as deb.

["Brian Durant" <interlists@gmail.com>]

I have just been doing some reading about how it is possible to
compile and install a program as a .deb package:

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall

I have been thinking about maybe trying this with Flock or Firefox 2.
I have two questions:

1) Isn't there a way to create a .deb package from source and install
it with Synaptic, so that Synaptic registers the install, but also so
that it is installed for all users?
2) If I chose to install Firefox 2, will there be a problem with the
Etch version of Firefox also being on the same system (i.e. plug-ins,
java, etc.)? Do I uninstall the standard version of Firefox by chosing
it in Synaptic, or do I need to do something more to clean-up the
system before I install Firefox 2?

Cheers,

Brian