Non-Debian Provided Packages

["Jason C. Wells" <jcw@highperformance.net>]

Is it advisable to install non-Debian provided packages? 

For example .deb files are out for openoffice3 but they haven't made 
their way to lenny yet.  It seems like the Sun provided .deb files 
aren't quite so slick with handling dependencies.  That or I am missing 
some important bit of understanding on how .debs work.

Thanks,
Jason