In my case, I needed a straight 8 foot fence to protect one side of my inflatable pool. I noticed that one of the review photos showed the item as straight, and so gave it a shot. The answer is yes, you can assemble it to form a straight fence if you simply drill two holes., which was super easy to do with a small drill bit through the PVC (the manufacturer pre-drills holes in the center post assuming you're going to position the second panel in the 90 degree configuration, so you simply need to add two holes if you plan to instead place them inline).
Fence looks great and is sturdy--survived a recent wind storm.