In recent years quantum master equations of the Lindblad type are receiving increased attention in different fields of physics. In quantum information they are seen as a resource that can be used to perform quantum operations, in statistical physics they form a well defined setting for nonequilibrium physics, while in condensed matter they can be used simply as a tool with which one can probe system's properties. I will first review basics of the Lindblad setting and then present some concrete results about steady states of many-body systems, with a particular emphasis on quantum transport in low-dimensional systems. Results will be presented for the Heisenberg chain with and without disorder.