With GNOME Shell, you just press the Super key (the Windows key on most keyboards) and start typing. It not only searches the installed programs (or their windows if they are already opened) and the files but the contacts too. Because the applications are ordered by frequency of use (I believe), one or two letters are enough and you often end up not even having the time to see the dash. For example, I type Super, A, Enter and Abrowser is launched or I switch to its window if it is already opened.
I am pretty sure there was no Alt+[key above Tab] in GNOME. And there
certainly was no dash (there were third party applications though, GNOME Do
for example): you had to press Alt+F1 to open the menu and then navigate with
the arrows up to your application or up to the "Search file" utility.
