[bojan]

Yep, those fluoro bulbs are sometimes dimmer before they warm up properly (but not always - I have two, bought on the same day and one of them comes up almost instantly the other one needs a minute or two to really start doing it's job).
However, the efficiency (output light power versus used power) is higher than traditional bulbs (the exception may be halogen bulbs, they are good, very efficient, not so cheap ($3 or so) and dimmable as well).

However, the environmental issues with fluoro bulbs are really problematic: each one of them has a lots of electronics - rectifier, high voltage inverter... transistors and diodes, capacitors, ferrite transformer.. mercury and florescent material inside the tube (which is cancerogen and just plainly poisonous) I can't see how they can be more environmentally friendly, compared to just a small piece of wolfram wire.

The same goes for LED's, however the amount of material is significantly smaller, but more plastic is used (that comes from petrochemical industry).