That is actually the first thing I did when I read the original post. Seems to work exactly the same for email purposes at least and everyone I sent mail to was able to decrypt etc. I also found the getting the cert process much easier. I didn't have to create an account and the email saying my cert was ready only took about 1 minute, I think i've waited close to 15 minutes for thawte certs in the past.
http://www.instantssl.com/ssl-certificate-products/free-email-certificate.html
Hopefully they don't follow the same fate at thawte did.
Anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at the moment. -- Robert Benchley