looking at replacing the flourescents with something else brighter.

As I age, I can appreciate the need for strong lighting in the shop.

What I and my buddy have done is to paint the place white - walls and
ceilings - high gloss "Ultra White" from HD, then we went with the
fluorescents you are ready to replace.

John went with the eight-foot two-bulb fixtures, I went with the cheap
($8.79) "Shoplights" from HD or Lowes. In either case, replacing the
fixture is about the same price (8ft) or cheaper (4ft) than replacing
the ballasts when they go.

Transporting the eight-footers is a bit much, I think, and they need
to be "wired-in."

The shoplights come with a power cord that allows for simply plugging
in the fixture and hanging it upon a couple of screw eyes (or a bent
nail and this makes it easy to re-arrange the position of the
fixture should your first educated guess prove to be off a few cm.

You can use the current location of your power outlets as a guide, but
I went with a uniform "string of fixtures about six-foot on center in
each direction (lengthwise - widthwise) to locate the duplex outlets
in my ceiling and wired one side Hot and the other switched. Using
X-10 outlets, one could easily control area lighting in a large shop
with this approach and I have done that as well in one shp which has
two "sections" so as not to waste power but still allow one of the
"three-way" switches to control the lighting (and charging station)
circuit. THis circuit also controls power to the compressor so it
doesn't recharge at three AM and wake the wife to wake me to go shut
it off!

So, I say "stay with fluorescents- just add more of them!