luser /loo'zr/ n. [common] A {user}; esp. 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 and on Usenet. Compare {mundane}, {muggle}.

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Source: The Jargon File