Naive query about open bugs

[Michael Rozdoba]

I loved Gaim & am now getting to know Pidgin, having not used IM for a 
good while.

The biggest issue I have with Pidgin is the failure of auto-away to 
work, indeed it's virtually a killer issue for me, so I searched through 
the bug tracker.

Seemingly this was reported in ticket 2175 three months ago back when 
2.0.2 was current. The odd thing is, the reporter actually posted a 
patch that's supposed to fix the problem.

I'm writing this post to ask if someone can explain why such a bug is 
still open?

Please do explain if I'm merely being very naive &/or have missed a 
simple explanation.

Lastly, are current dev builds available from any source? I'd love to 
get my hands on a fixed version if & when it becomes available.

Thanks.

-- 
Michael Rozdoba