[common] A {user}; esp. one who is also a {loser}. ({luser} and
{loser} are pronounced identically.) This word was coined around 1975
at MIT. Under ITS, when you first walked up to a terminal at MIT and
typed Control-Z to get the computer's attention, it printed out some
status information, including how many people were already using the
computer; it might print "14 users", for example. Someone thought it
would be a great joke to patch the system to print "14 losers"
instead. There ensued a great controversy, as some of the users
didn't particularly want to be called losers to their faces every
time they used the computer. For a while several hackers struggled
covertly, each changing the message behind the back of the others;
any time you logged into the computer it was even money whether it
would say "users" or "losers". Finally, someone tried the compromise
"lusers", and it stuck. Later one of the ITS machines supported luser
as a request-for-help command. ITS died the death in mid-1990, except
as a museum piece; the usage lives on, however, and the term luser is
often seen in program comments and on Usenet. Compare {mundane},
{muggle}, {newbie}, {chainik}.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {bob}{BOFH}{chainik}{crash}{eye candy}{GIGO}{green card}{GWF}{highly}{Jeff K.}{lamer}{loser}{luser}{muggle}{Murphy's Law}{naive user}{newbie}{padded cell}{PEBKAC}{read-only user}{real user}{room-temperature IQ}{spam}{tourist}{turist}{user}{virus}{womble}]