luser

jargon, abuse /loo'zr/ A user; especially 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.

See: also LART. Compare: tourist, weenie.

[Jargon File]

(1998-07-01)