boostud, the best way anyone can help is for you to tell us a specific thing you want to do. Then, once you're clear on that, tell us the next thing you have a question about. Don't feel intimidated about asking questions, that's the only way to learn! That and Google are the best tools you will find!

Dapper Dan is right, in addition to that if you want to learn quick then grab some real linux beginner level book (i am not talking about ebooks, i am talking about *real* ones), that book will help u clearify the basic concepts about the basic tools or softwares that you have installed and their working.
 
good luck

well, i can just give you a few pointers on things i learned, if mandrake is like fedora then some of these might help...chmod a+x make the file executable..if it is a bin, you may have to this to run some bin files for installation...to run programs you installed either a. try the run prompt first and type n the name, it may put it there...if that doesn't work try going into the folder and finding a file along the names of the program, then open that file in a terminal...
thats some of the basic stuff...
Daum