Got the 1X40 strip all properly assembled and wired to part of an extension cord and "installed" at the top of a wall shelving unit, reflecting off the ceiling providing indirect light. Lamp is a Philips F40T12/DX Alto; I gave the Chroma 50s I saved from the dump the other day to Icefoglights when we met, at the same time I got the clear Westy Lifeguard and Sylvania /DX.
I'm curious as to what my roommate will comment. We almost never use the overhead fluorescents in here (two 2-lamp T8 drop-dish surface troffer mount fixtures) since they're too bright for sitting back watching a movie, or computer work on his side of the room. But this is way softer. I actually find deluxe daylight or /950 more pleasant than cool white for that reason; it's usually a bit dimmer and more natural in color; a softer light. This 90CRI daylight deluxe reminds me a lot of /950 though, it's just as "flickery" and "dim". Granted, the ballast it's running on is a frankly piece of garbage Magnetek from May 2001. Not only do those ballasts severely underpowered lamps, but they are very susceptible to voltage fluctuations (here, whenever somebody goes up in the elevator, all the lights in the building flicker slightly, but with this strip it's still exacerbated more). When I first unpacked the fixture, I tried testing it by throwing a lamp in it and setting the ballast in the fixture channel (oddly enough, the ballast wasn't installed, but I think that's because a screw would stick out ever so slightly enough to damage the cardboard box the fixture came in). With the ballast just sitting in the channel and no channel cover and not grounded (I literally stuck the wires into the end of an extension cord, but only for testing; I'd never leave it that way) I had a heck of a time getting it to light at all. When I finally got it lit the first time the lamp would not stop rectifying. At first I figured it was just another defective Alto, but hey, I have a whole case of those F40T12/DX Altos at my disposal, so I just tried another, identical lamp. Still no go. I finally realized I'd left one of the white leads from one of the sockets disconnected. I've never had to wire a single lamp rapid start to power (actually, I have; a trigger start F20 strip, but I don't recall it being wired like that) so I had overlooked the extra neutral lead, having never had an experience wiring something like it before to suggest such an extra wire even existed! Even then, it wouldn't start easily, being not grounded. Setting the channel cover on would help a little bit, but even then not much. Properly grounded, with a 3 prong cord, and the ballast screwed down and the channel cover securely installed, it lights fine, though, and even has a good, slow ramp-up to full brightness.
The eventual plan for this thing was to display a Power Twist lamp I had, in a place where it could be turned on and functional of course as a conversation piece, and used for color matching or macro photography if needed with the 5500K, 91CRI light of the Vita-Lite. But I like the way I have it set up now enough I might install it back home as another indirect light. There's several places a 1X40 strip with a crappy LPF ballast would work well for that, though on my not-clean-utility-grade power back home, being off grid, these ballasts are going to be obnoxiously flickery if they're anything like the 2-lamp versions. (although the LPF 14/15/20 watt trigger start Universals I have are decent on less-than-totally-clean power).
There's still about three more, I may pick them up later and ship them home, along with the HOs they have there too. (Also NOS Metalux). But in the meantime, being in the dorms, I'm a little short on space and don't want to blow all my money immediately on unnecessary things.