yikes...

It is one click in settings to remove sponsored shortcuts.

Does that matter though? The fact that they add this at all is pretty gross
- It's gross if you have donated to the project. If you haven't, I see no issues with getting an ad I can turn off.
- How much have you paid to mozilla to use firefox?
- Momma Mozzy needs to pay the bills. She doesn’t have as deep of pockets a Google and Apple do.
  I feel a couple obviously-notated-as-sponsored links (that you can turn off) or a default search engine (that can be easily changed) that don’t effect the core behavior or security of the browser itself are worth it for a good FOSS browser.
- This has been a thing for years now. It's nothing new.
- Y'all feel so entitled to something that is free. And guves you options with one click to turn off.

Wherever I setup a new VM/PC and install FF, I always have to reset so many things:

Standard search SearXNG/DDG
New tab = blank page (privacy, no 3rd party request on new tab opening)
Delete Amazon, Google, etc ( out of spite)
Opt-out of analytics and studies
Change theme to dark
Add shortcut for other searches
Install ublock origin and ublock matrix (apparently redundant now, but I like visiting websites and blocking everything by default. Looking at you google analytics/fonts/etc.)
delete cookies on Exit
HYTPS only enable
add DNS (if not inside my network where it is handled on router level)

Still my favorite browser

Why not avoid most of this and use LibreWolf instead?
- Didn‘t had that on my radar, thank you <3
FYI you can just copy over the settings directory to port all your config/passwords/bookmarks/profiles/history. On Linux it's in the ~/.mozilla directory, on Windows it's somewhere in the user directory, AppData specifically IIRC.
I'm so confused by this thread.
Standard search, sure, okay. Not a big deal. But I never had sponsored links appear, it also does not come with Amazon or Google "installed"? What does that even mean? Search bars? Plugins? The theme also gets switched depending on my system settings, as it is set to auto by default.
Is this like a Windows exclusive thing? Or geolocated US / outside EU thing?

Type about:preferences#home in the address bar, and then uncheck "Sponsored shortcuts".

You can always use one of the forks such as IceCat or LibreWolf if you’re that dissatisfied

Been using waterfox, and been very happy with it.

You can turn them

Others mentioned ways to remove the sponsored links, though while on the subject of home pages, I'd like to shout out Tabliss. It's the home page that I use, and is fairly simple. Gives me a background I can choose, as well as widgets for time, weather, etc.