It's because all these self-taught PHP developers think it's some kind of affront to have to pay $25 for a CA-signed certificate for their shopping cart applica

It's because all these self-taught PHP developers think it's some kind of affront to have to pay $25 for a CA-signed certificate for their shopping cart application. Even though you can now get CA-signed certificates for free ( eg http://cert.startcom.org/ http://cert.startcom.org/ )!