For something that's free and not foisted upon anyone, there seems to be a lot of negativity here. Okay, so it's not as good as you want it to be. Roll up your sleeves and make it happen.
This idea that open source is somehow immune from criticism is old and tired. If they want to pretend like they're targeting normal people, they need to act like it. This means putting work into things like UX.
This site isn't called "normal people news".
How's that stance been working for you? Still waiting to see a single instance of Linux on the desktop of a non-programmer. 99% of people, HN users included, just want something that works. Few people have time to go much around and fix some messaging app when they could simply download a better alternative.