Ubuntu :: State Of External Monitor Support

My experience with external monitors in Linux is harrying at best. It's getting better, but it still ain't perfect. My current experience (I have an nVidia card, with nVidia drivers, on a Vostro laptop):

Turn on computer (booting Karmic).
Connect external monitor
Click on System->Preferences->Display
Redirect to nVidia's tool
Perform at least 8 more clicks to enable secondary monitor.
Realize resolution isn't optimal and set it with another few clicks.
Click Apply
Accept changes
Quit, then really quit, the app.

I always have to set the resolution, it doesn't detect it automatically. The main screen is *always* on the external monitor no matter my settings. I'm screwed if I unplug the monitor but forget to go through steps 1-8, this time disabling the external monitor. I have to replug it in, then turn it off, then I can unplug it. If I unplug the external monitor and plug in another one (going through steps 1-8 twice more) with different resolution capabilities (e.g. a projector), the settings get all messed up again.

Why can't adding an external monitor be automatic? It nearly is on OS X for instance. I plug it in, and it automatically detects the monitor and makes it a secondary monitor, or mirrors them, or turns it on and turns off the laptop screen. All the while being consistent about it. When I unplug the monitor, it knows instantly that I've done that, and reconfigures the laptop screen once again.

I imagine the answer is because no one has stepped up to do it yet, or it's in progress. So my question: what *is* the state of external monitor codes in Linux, and are there any plans to implement them in Lucid? Further, what would be a project, with *user friendly* context, to which I could tune in?

Or, am I not aware of the "right way" to do it?

I define user friendly as roughly the level of kernelnewbies.org . That is, kn.org is my gauge of what I can understand.