User (computing)

User (computing)

A user is an agent, either a human agent (end-user) or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username (also user name). Other terms for username include login name, screen name (also screenname), nickname (also nick), or handle, which is derived from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.

Users are also widely characterized as the class of people that use a system without complete technical expertise required to understand the system fully. In hacker-related contexts, such users are also divided into lusers and power users.

In projects in which the actor of the system is another system or a software agent, it is quite possible that there is no end-user for the system. In this case, the end-users for the system would be indirect end-users.

Read more about User (computing):  End-user, User Account, Criticism, See Also, References

Famous quotes containing the word user:

    A worker may be the hammer’s master, but the hammer still prevails. A tool knows exactly how it is meant to be handled, while the user of the tool can only have an approximate idea.
    Milan Kundera (b. 1929)