I feel like along with the obvious reason that more CS students get caught in entry level classes due to such automated systems that check for duplicate code, etc. the main reason that students cheat in these classes is because many of the people who may or may not be computer science students have no idea how to write code and are therefore absolutely confused. They try to find someone in their class who has a better idea of what they are doing than they do and then use that student's code as an example or simply copy it. Some people simply have a higher aptitude for understanding programming and code than others and that causes the issue.

I would definitely recommend that you use Virtualbox (as many other have recommended) as it is a fully featured desktop virtualization environment and is free as opposed to vmware workstation which offers similar features. This would also allow the more adventurous of your students to create their own virtual machines and try out different distributions. To me, part of learning linux lies in learning the differences and quirks of each of the popular distributions. Obviously learning how to use bash and use the core linux kernel is going to be the most important, but learning the difference between apt and yum, etc. are also important. As for the best distribution to use for such a class, I would have to go with ubuntu as it is definitely the most popular growing linux distribution available, this would also allow for a massive amount of information and documentation online in order for students to do their own troubleshooting, etc.

I really feel sorry for the guy who actually lost the phone, seems like an awful bad thing to happen to someone, especially on their birthday. That said, I absolutely believe that what was found is going the new iphone, whether or not it is in it's final form or not, everything is just too well built for it to end up being just a Chinese knock off. It does seem a little bit sketchy for someone to find a phone, attempt to give it back, then sell it to someone else, all the while the original owner is probably lamenting it's loss and the probable loss of his job.