That is almost strange they are generally so similar, as having recently had one blow when powering up a fairly standard looking shield for what little inquiry was possible received a lot of lack of information and mentions of unfamiliarity. Though, the similarity is what I first assumed most.
One thing I did notice and stumble upon, having had no experience and found little explicit enough info beyond a certain point, is that specific enough clones or variations will also use specific ‘USB drivers’ depending both ‘mac and pc’ and which particular clone-version or original, etc. it is, in order to get your computer to ‘recognize the port’ in order to communicate with the board, once it has been connected by the USB cable.
For example, I had to use the CH340 / CH341 usb driver for the board I recently had ‘blow’ when connected the shield/board etc. to DC power.
The, usually, good thing about a lot of people using the ‘Model A’ of something is that eventually many people will know of many things which can or may cause various mishaps as a result, and etc.
Somewhat incidentally, does anyone know if the Uno sold by Inventables is a genuine original Arduino ? I had been intending to eventually pick up at least one genuine original Arduino at some point, but now have to pick up another Uno and probably gShield so as to have a better chance of correct connecting confirmation and support if something does not work.
It appears that it would be at the price and titling, but I would prefer to make sure, in the case that it turned out to be an effective and useful clone, while I was expecting to receive a genuine Arduino artifact.
Thanks also for the input and feedback of the inquiry.