Editing Luser (section)

==History==

The [[Jargon File]] states that the word was coined around 1975 at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://catb.org/jargon/html/L/luser.html|title=luser|access-date=6 October 2014}}</ref> although LUSER is visible in [[Compatible Time-Sharing System|CTSS]] source code circa 1969 in subroutines involving spying on and killing users and deleting their files and directories.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rcornwell/ctss/master/original/com1 |title=ADMIN - Administrator Privleged Commands |last=Roach |first=Roger A. |date=1969 |website=Github |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |access-date=April 5, 2022}}</ref> Under [[Incompatible Timesharing System|ITS]], when a user 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. A patch to the system was then written to print "14 losers" instead of "14 users", as a joke. For a while, several [[Hacker (computer security)|hackers]] who disagreed on the appropriateness of the change struggled covertly, each changing the message behind the backs of the others; any time a user logged into the computer it was equally probable that a user would see, say, "users" or "losers". Finally, someone tried the compromise "lusers", and it stuck. Later, [[Incompatible Timesharing System|ITS]] also had the command "luser", which attempted to summon assistance from a list of designated helpers.

Although ITS ceased to be used in the mid-1990s,  use of the term continued to spread, partly because in [[Unix]]-style computer operating systems, "[[User (computing)|user]]" designates all unprivileged accounts, while the [[superuser]], or root, is the special user account used for system administration. "root" is the conventional name of the user who has all rights or permissions (to all files and programs) in all modes (single- or multi-user). The usage lives on, however, and the term "luser" is often seen in program comments and on [[Usenet]].

On [[Internet Relay Chat|IRC]], <code>/lusers</code> (which abbreviates "list users") is a common command to get the number of users connected to a server or network.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irchelp.org/irchelp/misc/ccosmos.html#Heading852|title=irchelp.org|access-date=6 October 2014}}</ref>