Using google and vivisimo is your best bet.
For installing packages and stuff Mandrake has rpmdrake and it's urpmi tools for managing and installing packages
That way all you have to do is configure urpmi and then you have a listing of files and programs that you can install. Then you just select what program you want to install, then press go (or whatever) and then the program installs itself along with all it's dependances.
I never used urpmi because I've never used Mandrake before, but I use Apt-get for debian, and installed apt-get for rpm's on redhat boxes and have had very good results. The only time I didn't like it was when I tried it out for SuSE, but I think it was my fault anyways.
Urpmi is along the same lines, having a good package manager improves the linux user's experiance by 150%. After installing and setting up the download managers updating and installing packages becomes much easier then even in Windows or OS X. The only catch is that you need a fast internet connection.
Then you also have mandrake's own user guide that will hopefully fill in the mandrake-specific blanks for you
here.