Depending on your DE, you can have those no problem. You just symlink to the respective .desktop file for the program you want to run. So for example, if you wanna start Firefox from your desktop, you’d look for a file called Firefox.desktop on your system (probably living under /usr) and symlink to that from ~/Desktop.
Desktop shortcuts
The Cmd + Space combo on MacOS was a game changer. Finds EVERYTHING on the computer.
Depending on your DE, you can have those no problem. You just symlink to the respective
.desktopfile for the program you want to run. So for example, if you wanna start Firefox from your desktop, you’d look for a file calledFirefox.desktopon your system (probably living under/usr) and symlink to that from~/Desktop.