While 1.7 is available as a package, 1.7 has no Mozilla plug-in for its associated JRE. So for those who want applets in a browser, 1.5 is the right way to go. If 1.6 is needed, 1.5 is a build dependency.
(Note that for subsequent update builds, the admin can use FLAVOR=native_bootstrap and reduce the length of time and some of the huge disk space demands for building Java.)
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