Yes, if you place an icon on your desktop or in a folder, that will be in
addition to the icon in the app drawer. If you want to
remove an icon from the app drawer, you need to use a home replacement (an app that replaces the standard desktop/home screen and usually adds a ton of customisation options, such as PandaHome/OpenHome/HelixLauncher and about half a million others).
This confuses me.
-Depending on your Android OS version, the app drawer cannot have any folders, only app icons. Custom roms and home replacements may enable you to store folders inside your app drawer.
- On the other hand, the list of current apps is
not in your app drawer. Holding down the Home key shows you a list of
most recently used apps, which is not to say that they're actually
still running.
Do you see my confusion?
Oh by the way: if you're looking for something like "Categories" on the old PalmOS, or if you simply want a nice way to categorise your apps and have category folders on your desktop, I would recommend
Apps Organiser.