It is one click in settings to remove sponsored shortcuts.
Firefox
A community for discussion about Mozilla Firefox.
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.
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.
How much have you paid to mozilla to use firefox?
You can turn them
Type about:preferences#home
in the address bar, and then uncheck "Sponsored shortcuts".
Wherever I setup a new VM/PC and install FF, I always have to reset so many things:
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Standard search SearXNG/DDG
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New tab = blank page (privacy, no 3rd party request on new tab opening)
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Delete Amazon, Google, etc ( out of spite)
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Opt-out of analytics and studies
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Change theme to dark
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Add shortcut for other searches
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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.)
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delete cookies on Exit
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HYTPS only enable
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add DNS (if not inside my network where it is handled on router level)
Still my favorite browser
You can always use one of the forks such as IceCat or LibreWolf if you’re that dissatisfied
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.