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There are two major classes of program packages: .rpm and .tar.gz (or .tgz, .bz2, .gz) RPMs are precompiled, installation-ready packages. You might prefer those, if you are new to Linux. RPMS in KDE are handled by kpackage (it's in the 'Utilities' section). Open it and move around a bit. kpackage is opened by default when you left click a RPM in the file manager.  To download them in Netscape, hold the <shift>button and left-click the link (works for every other file, too). There is one obstacle, though: if you aren't root, you can't use kpackage to install or uninstall rpms. There are two ways to handle this, both involve opening a virtual terminal (click on the icon with the two screens or hit <Ctrl>-t in the filemanager), this is something like the DOS-window known from some lesser OS's. Type 'su' to become root. Now you may a) fire up kpackage (type 'kpackage' at the prompt) or b) install the rpms by hand. Some options are: rpm -i [Package_name]  : installs rpm -U [Package_name] : upgrades an installed package with a new version rpm -r [Package_name] : uninstalls Adding the -vv option (e.g. rpm -ivv) turns on verbose mode (useful if encountering errors). RPM keeps a database about all installed programs, so you won't be able to accidentally erase important programs or files which other programs rely on. Though be aware that you are doing your installs as root: rpms from obscure sites may be badly configured or even contain malicious content. Some common issues with rpm: failed dependencies. rpm checks if the package you are about to install has all the other packages installed that are required to run the program properly. Alas it only does these checks against its own database. So if you compiled and installed a prerequisite rpm won't find that and will refuse to install. In this case you may either: Install the prerequisite again via a rpm-package or tell rpm to ignore dependencies (option --nodeps and the ultimate --force). Be careful with these options, though... checking rpms without kpackage A pretty smooth way to get more information about a rpm is using the 'midnight commander' ('mc'), which runs on console or in a virtual terminal (e.g. kvt). mc allows you to browse a rpm just like a directory and have a look at all installation scripts (besides: it also makes a formidable file manager). 'install' or 'upgrade'? It is important to discriminate these two. An example: You want to upgrade a library (that's a collection of program routines) because you want to install a program that needs that new version. But some of your programs depend on the old version. If you now upgrade with rpm -U these programs perhaps won't work anymore. You may now get all these programs in rpms that are compiled against the new version of this library. Or you just use the -i switch. Most libraries can coexist in different versions on one system. Common resources are: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/ and (preferably) its worldwide mirrors. Mandrake-Linux is compatible to RedHat-Linux. Apart from the KDE-base rpm and system initialization stuff you may use original RedHat packages. For Mandrake specific updates check Mandrake's FTP server and its mirrors via Mandrake's main site at http://www.linux-mandrake.com
http://rufus.w3.org/linux/RPM/ The RPM repository at Rufus.org contains some 10.000 rpm-packages. You may choose every package with a RedHat-i386-glibc (5.2/contrib/update) tag. libc5 packages may also work. They also offer a tool 'rpmfind' which eases the process of finding and downloading specific rpms. So-called 'tarballs' are packages with the ending tar.gz, .tgz, .bz2 or .gz. These mostly contain programs in source-code that you have to compile yourself. Unpack them with 'ark' (via right click on file name). They contain files like README, INSTALL etc. Read them and follow the instructions. It's a matter of luck if they compile straight away or if you have to fiddle with path-or makefile settings or have to install other programs first (Check the Software Building mini-HOWTO for that). If you don't want to do that, check the rpm-repository at Rufus.org first, if they have a rpm of that program. Since Mandrake is compatible to RedHat, you have a vast choice.  It may be a good idea to keep large downloaded packages somewhere in case you need them again. (Why someone wants to compile a source anyway if it can be such a tedious task?), you may ask. Some reasons are: you may customize program features and install paths self compiled programs usually are even more stable and faster than precompiled ones because they are more suited to your system settings upgrading is easier: you just simply apply a patch and recompile. With rpms you have to download the whole program again. source code is more up-to-date. Programs are written in source code. To  make a rpm of them, you first have to compile them, write the installation scripts and (hopefully) test them. So if this program  has a flaw or is missing a feature you want badly you can do nothing but issue an bug-report or a feature request and hope for the next version. If you have the source chances are the author will write a fix/patch which you can apply soon. Common resources are: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ ,ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ . These are mirrored at many university FTP servers.

Debian users can check out Havoc Pennington's Debian tutorial 's chapter 16 on dpkg and apt it's a bit old but still relevant

Recommended reading: man rpm, rpm --help | more, RPM HOWTO, Software Building mini-HOWTO 

7.2 A quick list of commands. 
 
 
 

7.3 KDE keyboard commands.

Keyboard commands for for KDE

7.4 GNOME ( Nautilus)keyboard commands.