If you are trying to just test your existing software, there are tons of tricks ... for example: http://www.opengl.org/discussion_boards/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=148011
if you are writing software and have the ability to specify a render ... then in the windows:
from: http://www.opengl.org/resources/faq/technical/mswindows.htm
To force software rendering from your application, select a pixel format that is not hardware accelerated. For this, you cannot use ChoosePixelFormat (), which always selects the hardware accelerated pixel format when it is available. Instead, use DescribePixelFormat () to iterate over the list of available pixel formats. Any format with the PFD_GENERIC_FORMAT attribute bit set will not be hardware accelerated.
for linux or mac ... I would have to look at real books ... let me know if you work on Linux / Mac