Fluorescent lights produce ultraviolet, and use fluorescent coatings to convert this to visible light. Color compensated fluorescent lights are widely available. These produce a natural balanced spectrum that is quite easy on the eyes. These also work great for photography and video.
As already mentioned, electronic ballasts eliminate flicker by converting 50-60 Hz to a much higher frequency.
Incandescent lighting is no less flawed unless you use color compensated bulbs such as GE Reveal.
For video, normal fluorescent lighting has a bluish hue, and normal incandescents have a yellowish hue.
I seriously doubt that CFL’s will ever be as cheap as incandescents. CFL’s are rather complex. Incandescents are just a wire in a glass bulb.