What is Apple's Java 7 Support on Snow Leopard?

The short answer is, "there isn't any."

. . . but, there should be some.

Apple is trying to lock me out of making a career in mobile development.  With limited funds to upgrade hardware (esp., my Macbook), Macbooks that are running Snow Leopard are restricted from using Java 6 and cannot upgrade to Java 7.  Oracle is laughing in Redwood City as the group in Cupertino has left a generation of Developers out to dry.

Java 6 has security vulnerabilities and Eclipse uses Java.  Google Application Engine (GWT, et al) cannot be deployed with Java 6.  But, one cannot install Java 7 to use or simply for compiling into a WAR file for another system (i.e., cross-development).

I found the question and a hopeful answer in Stackoverflow, How to install java jdk 7 on Snow Leopard, however, it does not appear to complete the install and the question is closed for any comments, remarks or questions of clarification.

The author is not publicly available, so I am reaching out to you, my Development Colleagues, to answer this question about the problem.

How long should I wait for the reboot to complete?  I have waiting 15 - 20 minutes before I did a hard-reboot.  Am I being impatient?