Thought for the Day

[ahhaa]

Nobody talks about users of dishwashers, or users of retail stores, or users of telephones. So why are we talking about "users" of computers, browsers, and software?
http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/2007/07/im-sick-of-user.html

[lordsmurf]

I've always avoided it for better jargon and/or normal words.
It always made me think of "drug users".

[Richard_G]

Here we have an example of the saying that the UK and US are two countries divided by the same language. A person that uses and dishwasher would be the user, the same for a telephone. We wouldn't refer to the user of a retail store however, but a shop customer. But, the person buying a product, no matter what it is, is regularly referred to as the "end user".