dear FSFE,
if you really want to encourage the upcycling of Android devices, you need to take responsibility for maintaining a robust, comprehensive archive of all of the software required to do so, for as many phones as possible. with no exceptions, other than "we just can't find the software for it". TWRP et al recoveries, new ROMs, SuperSU or equivalent for rooting... everything. and comprehensive guides.
because as it is, once people step outside the top few phone brands, even trying to get hold of the latest ROM means scrabbling around on forums and websites of questionable provenance, with little or no support - and a fair number of spam sites along the way
so first, fix that. *then*, once you've made it easy, you can preach to us about upcycling phones.
for example. i have not one, but two, Neffos C5 phones that i'd dearly love to run something other than the stock Android (5.1) on. but getting to the first step (installing an alternative recovery image) requires fishing around the backwaters of the internet and trusting that the file you end up downloading is actually what it says it is, and not some program that'll download the entire contents of your phone to a server somewhere in Georgia (or whichever other US state the NSA are working in these days)
