Exactly, so I'm puzzled why the OP said it missed that behaviour (and I suppose others miss that too as someone downvoted you ^__^;).

I'm not familiar with recent Windos but pressing the "Super" key on Gnome opens the "overview" screen (or what's called) with a big "Type to search..." text box that can be used to search files to open or programs to launch.

P.S. I prefer to use shortcuts to launch the common programs, using an extension that mimics Ubuntu Unity style Super + number_key, according to the order in the "Favorites".