Over 350,000 Eee PCs have been sold so far since the release in mid October, according to Tech Digest. This is already 50,000 over the original goal of 300,000 units sold by the end of 2007. This is a success for Linux in two ways. First, the success of the Eee PC shows other hardware manufacturers that there is a market for computers with Linux on them that is worth getting into. Second, the more people using Eee PCs, the more people who know what Linux is. And the more people who know what Linux is and do not associate it with “geek,” the better for desktop Linux adoption.

To put the 350,000 number in perspective, Dell is thought to have sold 40,000 Ubuntu PCs over a period of about 5 months, according to The Register. This is about 8,000 per month compared to about 175,000 Eee PCs per month. Granted, the two products are very different and the numbers are not precise, but the difference in sales is obvious. One explanation for this difference is that the cost savings of not using Windows on a $400 laptop is far more eye-catching than on a $1000+ computer.