4  definitions  found 
 
  From  Webster's  Revised  Unabridged  Dictionary  (1913)  [web1913]: 
 
  User  \Us"er\,  n. 
  1.  One  who  uses.  --Shak. 
 
  2.  (Law)  Enjoyment  of  property;  use  --Mozley  &  W. 
 
  From  WordNet  r  1.6  [wn]: 
 
  user 
  n  1:  someone  who  enjoys  property  [syn:  {enjoyer}] 
  2:  a  person  who  uses  something  or  someone  selfishly  or 
  unethically  [syn:  {exploiter}] 
  3:  someone  who  consumes  drugs  [syn:  {drug  user},  {substance 
  abuser}] 
 
  From  Jargon  File  (4.2.3,  23  NOV  2000)  [jargon]: 
 
  user  n.  1.  Someone  doing  `real  work'  with  the  computer,  using 
  it  as  a  means  rather  than  an  end  Someone  who  pays  to  use  a  computer. 
  See  {real  user}.  2.  A  programmer  who  will  believe  anything  you  tell  him 
  One  who  asks  silly  questions.  [GLS  observes:  This  is  slightly  unfair. 
  It  is  true  that  users  ask  questions  (of  necessity).  Sometimes  they  are 
  thoughtful  or  deep.  Very  often  they  are  annoying  or  downright  stupid, 
  apparently  because  the  user  failed  to  think  for  two  seconds  or  look  in 
  the  documentation  before  bothering  the  maintainer.]  See  {luser}.  3. 
  Someone  who  uses  a  program  from  the  outside,  however  skillfully,  without 
  getting  into  the  internals  of  the  program.  One  who  reports  bugs  instead 
  of  just  going  ahead  and  fixing  them 
 
  The  general  theory  behind  this  term  is  that  there  are  two  classes 
  of  people  who  work  with  a  program:  there  are  implementors  (hackers) 
  and  {luser}s.  The  users  are  looked  down  on  by  hackers  to  some  extent 
  because  they  don't  understand  the  full  ramifications  of  the  system  in 
  all  its  glory.  (The  few  users  who  do  are  known  as  `real  winners'.) 
  The  term  is  a  relative  one:  a  skilled  hacker  may  be  a  user  with  respect 
  to  some  program  he  himself  does  not  hack.  A  LISP  hacker  might  be  one 
  who  maintains  LISP  or  one  who  uses  LISP  (but  with  the  skill  of  a  hacker). 
  A  LISP  user  is  one  who  uses  LISP,  whether  skillfully  or  not  Thus  there 
  is  some  overlap  between  the  two  terms;  the  subtle  distinctions  must  be 
  resolved  by  context. 
 
 
 
  From  The  Free  On-line  Dictionary  of  Computing  (13  Mar  01)  [foldoc]: 
 
  user 
 
  1.    Someone  doing  "real  work"  with  the  computer,  using 
  it  as  a  means  rather  than  an  end  Someone  who  pays  to  use  a 
  computer.  A  programmer  who  will  believe  anything  you  tell 
  him  One  who  asks  silly  questions  without  thinking  for  two 
  seconds  or  looking  in  the  documentation.  Someone  who  uses  a 
  program,  however  skillfully,  without  getting  into  the 
  internals  of  the  program.  One  who  reports  {bug}s  instead  of 
  just  fixing  them  See  also  {luser},  {real  user}. 
 
  Users  are  looked  down  on  by  {hackers}  to  some  extent  because 
  they  don't  understand  the  full  ramifications  of  the  system  in 
  all  its  glory.  The  term  is  relative:  a  skilled  hacker  may  be 
  a  user  with  respect  to  some  program  he  himself  does  not  hack. 
  A  LISP  hacker  might  be  one  who  maintains  LISP  or  one  who  uses 
  LISP  (but  with  the  skill  of  a  hacker).  A  LISP  user  is  one  who 
  uses  LISP,  whether  skillfully  or  not  Thus  there  is  some 
  overlap  between  the  two  terms;  the  subtle  distinctions  must  be 
  resolved  by  context. 
 
  2.    Any  person,  organisation,  process,  device, 
  program,  {protocol},  or  system  which  uses  a  service  provided 
  by  others 
 
  The  term  "{client}"  (as  in  "{client-server}"  systems)  is 
  rather  more  specific,  usually  implying  two  processes 
  communicating  via  some  protocol. 
 
  [{Jargon  File}] 
 
  (1996-04-28) 
 
 

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