Old name: dpkg-view. Changed to avoid a conflict with the dpkg- namespace. deb-gview is designed for Debian developers, Debian applicants / sponsorees and the simply curious.
By default, File|Open displays the list of packages in the apt cache: /var/cache/apt/archives/ deb-gview also loads .deb files directly from the command line. This can be used with file managers like Nautilus to open .deb files from a file viewer window. This is not enabled automatically, yet. e.g. to enable this in Nautilus, right click a .deb file, select Open and select "Debian Package Viewer" from the list. Nautilus will now use deb-gview to open .deb files in future.
deb-gview (>= 0.1.0) can also load the .deb files listed in a .changes file, each in a new window. deb-gview (>= 0.1.0) can load a .deb or a .udeb from a local filesystem or a remote repository.
deb-gview will remain a .deb viewer rather than being extended to cope with any .tar.gz