The Firefox developers leave it to extension developers to add features that aren't used widely, so you can do a search on the Add-ons website (Firefox/Tools > Add-ons > Extensions > Get Extensions) if you do not want to use the about:config page.

See also this article about the New Tab page (about:newtab):

• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/new-tab-page-show-hide-and-customize-top-sites

I think it's a little late for outrage: It's been this way since June 2012 when Firefox 13 was released.

You could just submit a suggestion here for how you would like a user interface for that page to work:

Help > Submit Feedback

For example, do you like the way the home page setting works with the "When Firefox starts" selector and the blank area to enter a custom URL? Where would you put it, on the section for Tab settings? Show your UI design prowess.

First of all, there's no "outrage" and I can't help it if I just now installed Firefox for the first time and found this l;little tidbit. Secondly, it's never "Too late" to speak up about a perceived lacking in a program. Does it work this way in IE? No. I understand you are not trying to copy IE but when more than half of windows users us IE and, as I did, only switch to Firefox to try out something new, it's in your best interest to try to emulate at least the GOOD things about it. Personally, being an IT guy, I have no problem understanding how to deal with this but what about other 95% of the users that aren't IT people? They will look at that explanation, shake their heads and uninstall it.

hello, in this support forum we are mostly volunteers and and users like you helping out, developers won't read here - we can neither implement any changes nor are we responsible for how it works today. if you want to provide such kind of feedback, input.mozilla.org/feedback is the far better venue for this. thank you!