Anecdatally we're getting more students with photosensitive issues (Altho the replacement of CRTs helps there) and visually impaired students with usable vision are struggling with CFLs as most lighting is horrid strip lighting or narrow spectrum stuff. Many of my students don't understand why their issues are worsening in last few years but I'll bet it's about changes in lighting.
I suspect you're right.
Grey gloom from CFLs is not 'light'.
I've had two CFLs fail within the past year, both less than three years old.
Yes, I'm not sure CFLs last any longer than incandescents. I've had loads fail, often within a year.
Most unusual, unless you get them from a market stall... I have only ever had one fail, in 20 years of having them (from when they cost £15!). I lost another, because I dropped it. I have, however, replaced a few because I wanted newer better ones, but this was after at least 5 years, possibly 10, and some of those have been re-used on less critical applications. As queen Kim says, don't take what they say about the "tungsten equivalent" as gospel, try it and make your own mind up. They use so much less juice, that using one that is a tad bigger than the claim on the box is perfectly O.K. Apparently the number of free CFLs issued by the energy companies exceeds the number of domestic light fittings in the U.K., so I'm puzzled at anyone feeling they need to buy a "normal" shaped CFL. I still have a thousand or so left in stock in our depot, but we are being naughty, we are supposed to have issued them all 2 years ago...
Sadly its a bit like buying bikes and bits, you could just walk in Halfords or Argos and buy a bike, and well, it'd be a bike, but crappy. Or you could make a bit of effort and get a decent one. As for Biggsy's problem with finding an LED as bright as a 100w tungsten lamp, well that may be tricky right now, but one day... as for a CFL as bright as that, easy peasy. I've got a floodlamp with a 60w CFL, and my god, thats bright.... I prefer higher colour temps (above 4000 deg K), but agree that CFL's in that range tend to be a bit grim, but decent quality LEDs with their wider spectrum are just fine. I've got 4000 deg K LED fluorescent strip replacements in my kitchen, excellent colour rendering, albeit a bit scary the first time you switch them on!