A critical factor in its success was that the X developers were willing to give the sources away for free in accordance with the hacker ethic, and able to distribute them over the Internet.

He is a gun rights advocate. Raymond also coined an aphorism he dubbed "Linus' Law" inspired by Linus Torvalds: "Given enough eyeballs all bugs are shallow" that first appeared in The Cathedral and the Bazaar. 280pp ISBN 1-56592-582-3
Moody Glyn; Code: Linux and the Open Source Revolution Basic Books 2002 342pp ISBN 978-0-7382-0333-1
Suarez-Potts Louis; Interview: Frank Hecker Community Articles May 1 2001 www.

After the 1997 publication of The Cathedral and the Bazaar Raymond was for a number of years frequently quoted as an unofficial spokesman for the open source movement. Eric Steven Raymond (born December 4 1957) often referred to as ESR is an American computer programmer author and open source software advocate.