diff --git a/conftest.py b/conftest.py
index e326c60d71..9b1296bb0b 100644
--- a/conftest.py
+++ b/conftest.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import platform
 import pytest
 from pathlib import Path
 
@@ -21,6 +22,24 @@ def pytest_addoption(parser):
         default=False,
         help="Enable debug plots during tests",
     )
+    # Users on Linux get fork by default but the tests run with forkserver (the default since Python 3.14)
+    parser.addoption(
+        "--mp-context",
+        default="forkserver" if platform.system() == "Linux" else None,
+        help="Multiprocessing context used by the tests instead of the default one (forkserver on Linux)",
+    )
+
+
+def pytest_configure(config):
+    mp_context = config.getoption("--mp-context")
+    if mp_context is not None:
+        import multiprocessing
+        import spikeinterface.core.globals as si_globals
+
+        # The default is patched as well so it survives reset_global_job_kwargs()
+        multiprocessing.set_start_method(mp_context, force=True)
+        si_globals._default_job_kwargs["mp_context"] = mp_context
+        si_globals.global_job_kwargs["mp_context"] = mp_context
 
 
 def pytest_collection_modifyitems(config, items):
@@ -32,6 +51,9 @@ def pytest_collection_modifyitems(config, items):
     rootdir = Path(config.rootdir)
     modules_location = rootdir / "src" / "spikeinterface"
     for item in items:
+        if config.getoption("--mp-context") is not None and item.name == "test_global_job_kwargs":
+            item.add_marker(pytest.mark.skip(reason="--mp-context changes the default job kwargs"))
+
         try:
             rel_path = Path(item.fspath).relative_to(modules_location)
         except: