RAW files are like unprocessed film. The raw processing software you use to edit them is like the film developer.
DNG (Adobe)
DNG is a RAW file format invented by Adobe and designed to offer a single 'universal' RAW format that everyone can use and swap rather than all the different RAW file formats used by different camera makers and cameras. In practice, it's been used by only a few camera makers and it's been complicated by different DNG versions, so it's mostly used within Adobe software.