Audacity
Overall sound editor & recorder, with loads of filters and such. Not really music software, but an amazingly good program.
http://audacity.sf.net (Open source project == 100% free ;))

A nice and affordable music program with an interesting ability to sing (called Virtual Singer) is Melody/Harmony Assistant made by Myriad. I like it anyway, makes things easier for me. :ok:

:ot: :unsure: If anyone played ever played the old game Sapiens, well, these are the guys who created that game... :D

Found this one just now, whilst browsing:

Rosegarden. It's kinda like Cubase for Linux. It's also very open-source...

I haven't tried it yet, but it looks impressive and I'm anxious to try it out !

And a little Linux sound repository...

I also recommend pretty much all of the eJay programs, they are very good once you get to be good with them and are also stunningly easy to learn.

Sound Forge is THE BEST! I used audacity but never liked it as much as SF. It is quite similar but SF is much easier to use. Thats just me though. Many ppl swear by Audacity. Both are good. SF is just a little better.

If by Audacity you mean Audition(ex Cool Edit), it certainly has numerous advantages on Sound Forge...

i always liked wavelab more jus for its effect routing options, also i notice no1 has mentioned acid pro ... it rocks!

Jeskola Buzz - it's free!

http://www.buzzmachines.com

I began playing with Scream Tracker (DOS), followed by Impulse Tracker (DOS, aka Fast Tracker 2), and then there was ModPlug Tracker (WIN).

Then -in my life- came Rebirth and the freeware program Hammerhead (which is very good, check it out!). After that I switched to Jeskola Buzz for a while, before I *stumbled upon* Reason. Now it's reason all the way, baby :) Not that I'm really good at it, but there's some potential and it's fun to use anyway.

I've tried some Ableton Live as well, but that's still too confusing for me.

Power Tabs (Freeware) is a great guitar tabbing program. You can download many many songs for free... It's a must for every guitar player :ok:

Power Tabs