UPDATED - I had to update this post after a conversation with RightScale founder and CTO Thorsten von Eicken and for Sun’s Open Cloud announcement, which are both now included below.

There has been some substantial technology and news regarding open source software in cloud computing lately. More proof that open source is reaching into nearly all aspects of enterprise and broader IT, and also reinforcement of the idea that open source software will continue to have a pervasive and disruptive impact on the way organizations of all shapes and sizes do their computing and deal with their data.

First up is RightScale, which as detailed by 451 colleague and Principal Analyst William Fellows, is up and running across the pond on Amazon’s EU EC2. As WiF reports, RightScale started with …

Red Hat gets a new VP. rPath appoints former Red Hat COO as chairman. Ubuntu Launchpad to go open source. Open source Windows. SCO formally files for Chapter 11. And more.

Official announcements
Industry Veteran Greg Symon Joins Red Hat as Vice President and General Manager of North American Sales Red Hat

rPath Welcomes Ex-Red Hat COO Tim Buckley rPath

Liferay Portal Released in Enterprise Edition LifeRay

Adaptive Planning …

IBM picks Ubuntu for virtual desktop. Nokia acquires Symbian and prepares for open source. SourceForge gets a new CEO. Microsoft finds some old TCO numbers down the back of the couch. And more.

Official announcements
IBM and Business Partners Introduce a Linux-Based, Virtual Desktop IBM

Novell Reports Financial Results for Fourth Fiscal Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2008 Novell

SourceForge Appoints Scott L. Kauffman President and Chief Executive Officer SourceForge

…

Sun updates MySQL Enterprise. The Microsoft/Novell deal is two years old. Nuxeo and Boxee get funding. Red Hat’s CEO on open source in a downturn. Steve Ballmer as a glove puppet. And more.

Press releases
Sun Enhances MySQL Enterprise With New Query Analyzer Tool to Boost Database Application Performance Sun Microsystems

Microsoft and Novell Mark Two Years of Interoperability Progress Microsoft

Nuxeo secures 2 million Euros and strengthens its board of directors and corporate governance Nuxeo

…

Sun Microsystems slashes jobs in major restructuring. SpringSource gets Groovy with G2One. Novell goes after Red Hat. Sonatype confirms Marc Visser as new CEO. Neil Young’s new car. And more.

Press releases
Sun Microsystems Aligns Business with Global Economic Climate and Amplifies Growth Opportunities Across Open Source Platforms Sun Microsystems

SpringSource Acquires G2One Inc SpringSource

Novell Announces New Program to Aid Transition to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server Novell

Zenoss Adds …

Actuate and Black Duck report on third quarter performance. Red Hat welcomes Microsoft to AMQP. Canonial launches Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition. How to pronounce my surname. And more.

Press releases
Actuate Reports Third Quarter 2008 Financial Results
Actuate

Black Duck Software Continues Phenomenal Growth in Q3 Black Duck

Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition enables mobile, flexible computing for a changing digital world Canonical

Microsoft Joins Working Group for Open Standards Messaging Software Microsoft

…

Kickfire and 10gen obtain new rounds of funding. BusyBox developers drop lawsuit against Supermicro. OpenLogic and EnterpriseDB release open source survey findings. (and more)

Kickfire Raises $20 Million in Series B Financing, Kickfire (Press Release)

10gen, New Cloud Computing Firm, Closes $1.5m Series A, 10gen (Press Release)

BusyBox Developers and Supermicro Agree to End GPL Lawsuit, Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) (Press Release)

OpenLogic Releases Survey on Enterprise Open Source …

Microsoft and Novell extend collaboration to China. IDC sees open source growing in importance with end users. rPath to use SUSE Linux for appliances. (and more)

Microsoft and Novell Extend Reach of Interoperability Collaboration to China, Microsoft / Novell (Press Release)

Open Source Software Grows in Importance to End-User Organizations Providing Rising Services Opportunity for Quality Assurance and Testing, IDC Survey Reveals, IDC (Press Release)

rPath to OEM SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell for Appliances, rPath (Press …

For the curious, the slides for the eLiberatica 2007 presentations are now up at http://eliberatica.ro/2007/ - the slides include presentations from eZ CEO Aleksander Farstad, Brian Behlendorf, FSF Europe President Georg Greve, Ubuntist Kurt von Finck and MySQL co-founder Monty Widenius (and yours truly, but the slides are a bit weak - check out my …