[Joseph Perkins]

I was asked a while ago about where to find some free notation software. After remembering this thread, I investigated and found out that finale really does charge for notepad. For those that need to view notepad files, they have finale Reader.

I then stumbled upon this project. I personally haven't tried it, but hey, its free. In order to hear playback with multiple instruments, you will need a soundfont. It can also be found here.

[Nicol Armarfi]

I use MuseScore for Linux, though now that I'm back on Windows I just use Finale.

NoteWorthy Composer has a free trial version that is only missing some features, but it doesn't make the best sheets, just some low quality PDFs. I personally really reccomend MuseScore, though.