See these articles for some suggestions:

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firefox+has+just+updated+tab+shows+each+time+you+start+Firefox
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/How+to+set+the+home+page - Firefox supports multiple home pages separated by '|' symbols
• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Preferences_not_saved

Thanks for the suggestions, but this appears to be someone's idea of being "helpful" without including a way to turn the window off in preferences, at least as far as I can see. "Ve haff vays uf offering you "suggestions" und "links" vezer you vant zem or not! You vill see zeese links und suggestions every time zat you open zee Firefox start up vindow!" It's not a malfunction, it's a "feature". I'm beginning to miss version 3.6xxx. Much simpler and not annoying... Perhaps it's time to migrate to a different browser...

Are you referring to the snippets on the about:home Home page?

Yes, I suppose. It's the little window below the search window.

It is possible to set the snippet URL to an empty string by setting the browser.aboutHomeSnippets.updateUrl pref to an empty string on the about:config page. Then you only get a few default snippets.

You can also hide the box that shows the snippets with code in userContent.css

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/userContent.css

The customization files userChrome.css (interface) and userContent.css (websites) are located in the chrome folder in the user profile folder.

• http://kb.mozillazine.org/Editing_configuration

@-moz-document url(about:home){
/* hide snippet container on the about:home page */
#snippetContainer { display: none !important; }
}