Cardapio (in most major Linux distros) is almost always, at most, two levels deep, categorized by app, and doesn't include a per-app folder including 6 different shortcuts, readme, uninstaller, etc. It's much cleaner to skim through, it's much easier to find, say, an "Internet" application out of all of them installed, has search and favorite folders baked in.
It might be the same functionality, but that's not really saying much. Linux and Windows fundamentally offer the same functionality.
Windows 8 is looking like such a failure.