HP Deskjet 6988 with Ubuntu

Since I always like to check for other people who have used particular hardware items before I buy, I thought I’d write a short post about this printer.

First, the print is beautiful and the printer is extremely easy to use. The one complaint I found in some reviews is quite accurate: It shakes, rattles, and rolls while it’s printing. I have never had a printer that appeared this active! That doesn’t keep it from printing very rapidly.

The main potential problem, of course, is not having a good driver for Linux, but in this case that is not a problem (I’m using Ubuntu Intrepid Ibex). I connected it wirelessly to my router using SES, which was successful almost instantly. Then I went to my printing manager and followed the procedure to add a printer. The new network printer had already been detected, and I simply had to choose which option to use on the driver.

I’m quite a fan of HP products in the first place. Of course, I might not have said that yesterday while my D1420 was dying an unnatural death as a project deadline rolled up. But to be fair I must admit that I paid only $30 for that printer, and then used it well above its expected duty cycle for a considerable time. This one was a bit more expensive, but it will also allow me to avoid paying for some print jobs I would otherwise have to take out, so overall I’m pretty happy with the result.

If you don’t have a way to connect the printer automatically to your router, you might have to use a Windows machine to set it up. I didn’t try that and don’t intend to. It’s set up as I want it right now.