One of the Commercial Electric CFLs I have in my smaller bathroom failed. I missed the EOL. I at first thought a capacitor failed as one lamp wouldn't light, but I looked at it and where the black spot had a hole eaten in the phosphor had raised and cracked the glass. When I broke the end carefully there was NO filament to be found. I put an older NOS GE Daylight there. The other 2 are close to EOL with the lamps put in there in January 2007.  The 2 old ones are glowing somewhat blue on the darkest ends......  I put some more "new" bulbs in the bathroom for when these fail also. I just hope I get to see it. I leave the bathroom lights on when I am home.

Bathrooms must just be CFL killers, at least that's been my experience. I had one die in a similar way too, glass cracked near one of the electrodes and lamp lost vacuum. That's the second one to die in less then a year, I don't think it was much of a show though.

Most CFLs that are 9 watts or higher will kill themselves out that way, regardless of where they are located. 

5 years with a LOT of switching isn't too bad. No smell no melting of the plastic.

Bathrooms are a problem for another reason - There is moisture, and there is the CFL's ballast. When combined, EOL will be way more exciting

I use magnetic fluorescent (in what was supposed to be undercabinet fixture) in the bathroom (moderate amount of switching), and incandescent in the toilet (a lot of switching). They both appear to hold up well

I have a preheat 8 watt "desk lamp" type with ballast inline with the cord. The porcelain toilet tank top is where it resides as a heat sink. This is on 24/7. That is used as my bathroom night light. 

The biggest lamp killers are the enclosed fittings/fixtures common in bathrooms, shower rooms and toilets. I've never had any last long in the vintage globe I have in my bathroom, I've considered fitting a small mains-powered fan inside the fitting to force air circulation (the glass globe would then cool the air and therefore the lamp more effectively) however for now I'm using incandescent bulbs.

A remote ballast would be the only practical answer here. I would need to make a bayonet to PL adapter with starter socket and fit the ballast in line with the supply cord. Now daylight PLs are available this would be the preferred option.


BG

In the bathroom of my father home, there is a sealed fixture with a CFL. Despite being in a bathroom, turning on/off frequently and in a non ventilated fixture, it survived for 3 years, probably because my father home is inhabited only when I and my brother going to there.
The tube survived, but the starting capacitor of the ballast cracked, resulting in red lamp ends.
I didn't turned on the lamp for a long time, when it reached to this mode, to prevent it from frying.
Here is a picture of the fixture with the fault CFL.
The lamp was a generic Home Electric tubular CFL of a wattage that i don't remember. Now the fixture have a Osram Duluxstar 15W\840. However it seems to start instantly at its brightness without brightening more.
Hope that this means that it indeed have instant 100% brightness and that it isn't underdriven by its integrated ballasts, as happens frequently with generic CFLs.