TIF vs RAW vs DNG

I'm an aperture user and the other day I used silkypix to convert a raw file to tif and imported and edited it in aperture. Huge file,mbut worked out quite nicely. I have not done much pp since getting into the x series, and have made only minor adjustments to jpegs when needed, so I am not all that familiar with the work arounds and all that. So here is what I wanted to know:

What are the disadvantages to tif and dng compared to raw?

What are the advantages/disadvantages between tif and dng?

How do you convert a file to dng?

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A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. - Sir Winston Churchill