The libhybris situation for the time being is "good enough".
Sony last year announced their intention to "mainline" their Xperia devices (their main phone brand)[1]. This could eventually mean running Android on the latest mainline kernel, and perhaps even GNU/Linux[2].
[2] Jolla (developers of SailfishOS, a real-Linux-on-mobile OS) announced in February that they are partnering with Sony to bring SailfishOS to the Xperia X (https://jolla.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Sony_Jolla_pres...), which should hopefully be out this month. It's taken a long time, but real-Linux-on-the-mobile is getting closer.
Linus has a vested interest in taking credit for the most prolific mobile platform. I don't think there is any common sense in the 'Android is Linux' argument beyond that though.
As a software platform, it isn't even remotely similar.
Android is an operating system built on top of the Linux kernel project. "Android is not Linux but ${DISTRIBUTION} is" is just stupid, operating systems simply cannot be compared to a kernel.
Linux is a kernel, and Linus has all the right in the world to make that claim. It doesn't in any way strengthen your argument though because of the different userland. You are comparing apples (operating systems) with oranges (kernels).
I tried to tell that his "real-Linux" (kernel) already exists (I don't know if he meant (in another comment, he said that he meant userland) userland e.g gnu, freedesktop.org etc by "real-Linux")
Sony last year announced their intention to "mainline" their Xperia devices (their main phone brand)[1]. This could eventually mean running Android on the latest mainline kernel, and perhaps even GNU/Linux[2].
[1] https://developer.sonymobile.com/2016/02/17/work-on-the-main...
[2] Jolla (developers of SailfishOS, a real-Linux-on-mobile OS) announced in February that they are partnering with Sony to bring SailfishOS to the Xperia X (https://jolla.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Sony_Jolla_pres...), which should hopefully be out this month. It's taken a long time, but real-Linux-on-the-mobile is getting closer.