I have an older Fez Cobra running a clock I made. Is there any hope of upgrading the firmware to a newer .net CLR or to circuitpython or to embedded c or literally anything?
NETMF is the only option. But there are many great new sitcore boards to consider.
You could remove the G120 and replace it with the SCM20260N and then use SITcore. It sounds daunting but I did this at the weekend with 2 old boards that were G120 and now they are SCM20260N and working with the 4.3" LCD and considerably faster graphics etc.
The only issue is that IO marking won’t be the same but you can cross reference to the schematic.
Any tips for pulling G120 off boards? I’m afraid to damage my boards…
do it all carefully. Very. 
you are right. Desoldering is / can be daunting. Don’t use any lateral force, you risk ripping up traces off the PCB. Use lots of flux. Beyond that, I’m too scared to give you suggestions !
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I used a hot air rework station set to 350 deg C. I wasn’t worried about damage to the G120 so I just kept the heat onto that part. You need to keep the tip moving around to heat it up enough to make the solder liquid enough to life it off the board. It will take a few minutes for the heat to go high enough to make the solder liquid and then I used tweezers to remove it from the board. After this I used solder braid with extra flux to clean the pads and make then flat and then re-soldered the new SCM20260 to the boards. I did 2 of them and both are working well. Didn’t even damage the 2 plastic headers alongside the old G120.
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