Mandrake was my second linux distro after a thankfully brief tangle with Caldera Linux (yeah, I know). Although I have very few good memories of Mandrake (made me discover why the term RPM-hell existed), it's still sad to see one of the big distros disappearing.
I've moved after that to Debian-based distros, and eventually to Slackware, and now I'm trying to get myself back into the linux game with CentOS/Red Hat, but I'll always remember Mandrake as my first not completely sucky distro.
Almost my same story. I still remember trying to learn as much as possible from the magazines, downloading a full distro with my connection was unthinkable back then. It was back when I lived in Mexico. I find it very interesting how technology enabled people growing in different backgrounds to share the same experience.
I've moved after that to Debian-based distros, and eventually to Slackware, and now I'm trying to get myself back into the linux game with CentOS/Red Hat, but I'll always remember Mandrake as my first not completely sucky distro.