OSDev.org

Right now I use Bochs to test my OS. However, I recently setup an old computer with Ubuntu Server, which has a Virtual Machine Server that uses the kvm Linux module to run virtual machines on hardware that supports VMX.

Would this method be a more realistic test for my OS than Bochs?

The more realistic is real hardware...

AFAIK KVM will present more of the host CPUs features to the guest. However, despite that, it's probably good to test your OS on as many things as possible.

The most important thing in testing, and that will help you find the most bugs, is variety. Both Bochs and virtual servers don't give you much (if any) variety. Unfortunately, the only way to get variety is to buy real machines. You don't have to spend much though. In this day and age, people usually have old computers lying around, "because they are too good to chuck away". If you offer to take the hard drive out so they can keep the data, most people are more than happy to give them away, or sell them for a pittance.

Yeah, I will be testing on real machines, but its obviously quite a hassle to do this every time I change a line of code.

As far as cheap/free computer that people give away, I doubt I will be able to find that many. My OS is long mode only and x86_64 processors aren't exactly common in older computers.

I would test on emulators to start with. When you are happy that a unit works on an emulator, test that entire unit on real hardware.

Cheers,
Adam