It's pretty close, but it has a few improvements. For starters, the Pivotal setup used Ikea Galant desks, which are a bit large. Instead of needing to cut that in two, we've got two Galant extensions. This eliminates the need for the desk staggering pattern shown in the pivotal post.

Second, the pivotal setup is based around an iMac with a second screen. We've found this somewhat odd as everyone has their own laptop. Therefore, this setup is driven from a laptop with the key addition of an hdmi splitter to make driving two screens from the laptop cost effective.

Given the extreme similarities, wouldn't it have been worthwhile to point out the similarities and differences to the Pivotal setup in the article, rather than adding them retroactively in the HN comments?

Very close. That article was the original inspiration and Josh's recent pic (https://twitter.com/joshsusser/status/212928411470012416/pho...) was what helped us realize that the extensions would provide enough space.