omon

i'm in constraction trade, i deal with these lights on daily basis, they do work with dimmers, regular switch is fine, assuming you have dimmable ballast. any flurecent bulb can be dimmed(with exception of screw in types with build in ballast.)
there is also a concern(so i've read in a mag.) that ballast creates emf that isn't good for ppl. while big fixtures 2 by 2 or 2 by 4, have shelded ballast, screw ins, have not.
they also loose brightness over time. put in a new bulb, a mounth later it will loose about 10% of its brightness.
leds seem to be better choice, but they are more expencive, and also require, transformer, you can run them using resistors, but it won,t be as efficiant as with voltage regulator. it too creates emf.
halogens, more efficient than incandesants, not as efficient as leds or fluressent, but simple, cheap. a minus is that they tend to get really hot. missuse can create fire. i have a flashligt at work, its a batt from a drill with 50w mr16 bulb, it gets so hot i light up my cig, from it, without even touching it, radiant heat is enough, try it with any other bulb.