I know its a bit late to post this, but I will anyway. I recently switched to M9.2 from Win98, and I was wondering if anyone has anything that might help me understand more of what is going on now. I'm not especially skilled with a computer, I'm still in school. Also, I wonder if there are any suggestions for superior apps, like multimedia, games, etc.
Multimedia : Totem
ripping : Grip
burning: K3B
browsing: Mozilla
IM : Gaim

I think you just nailed them. Though I do like xcdroast better for burning cd's and mplayer (gmplayer) for multimedia. If you dislike the mplayer frontend, and you don't want to play you multimedia from the command-line, try gxine or even better Kaffeïne(both xine frontends). There are other frontends to mplayer as well: Kmplayer or kplayer.
Browsing: Firefox
IM: GAIM indeed...

Your program choices seem to be fine, after all it is all a matter of choice.you could try the new version of amsn for instant messaging though, it has a nice interface and the ability to display a picture.
Also if you have only just loaded 9.2 and haven`t already done so use mandrake update from the control centre to get the latest updates, it will save you from a few minor but annoying (and probably frustrating) bugs that seemed to be there from the get go. Other than that i hope you enjoy your experience with linux and continue to be apart of our community for a long time.9.2 is a great distro, can`t wait for 10.
opera is also a good browser, especially if you like fancy interfaces, there are a heap of skins available to be downloaded.
Try xine for dvd, you will need the css plugin to play commercial ones though.
K3b is nice but i find x- cdroast to be faster, not as good looking though.
Can`t really suggest any games (not into them).anyway good luck

Get mplayer and also the mplayer browser plugin for mozilla. That's the best way I've found to use QT video on websites.

FireFox is a good browser.

I also use XCD-Roast

Acutally, I use xcdroast to dupe cd's, I cant get k3b to work for that, but everything else is k3b.