Gregory's Server@jaz I prefer the terms 'person' or 'account' while I totally get where the whole user thing comes from.
As a long time Linux/Unix user, adduser, and userland, are familiar concepts and the whole user nomenclature is written deep into general systems language. I doubt that can be changed.
I do think we can change how we talk about accounts in applications though. Not everyone gets the user thing and the word has negative connotations when applied to people outside of IT systems.
@Spadge precisely. I've made my fair share of software for people to use, and there's a business need to refer to the humans interacting with it, but not to their collective face.
"Accounts", "patrons", or "customers" (even if they're not paying), or "members" if you build community software; there's plenty of ways to keep the human at the center of the interaction.