For anyone who didn't recognize it, that's a reference to Orwell's Newspeak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak). Which makes me wonder about two things:
- is Linus hinting that he is censoring himself, and if he wasn't, what expression would he have used instead?
- for what kind of incident does he reserve the attribute "double plus ungood"? Probably if such a bug would get into the production kernel?
You’re reading way too much into it - it’s just a colourful expression.
Anyway, “double ungood” would not be a valid Newspeak construction. The base is “good” and “ungood” is the negation; intensification would be “plusungood” and further intensification “doubleplusungood”.
- is Linus hinting that he is censoring himself, and if he wasn't, what expression would he have used instead?
- for what kind of incident does he reserve the attribute "double plus ungood"? Probably if such a bug would get into the production kernel?