The analogue in CS would be to give the students a pre-configured environment if you want to deep dive into a specific topic before teaching how to set things u

The analogue in CS would be to give the students a pre-configured environment if you want to deep dive into a specific topic before teaching how to set things up. If the students are using a known OS, all you need to distribute is a shell script. Otherwise give 'em a Vagrantfile or something. That being said, you'll want your students to understand their tools sooner rather than later.