MuseScore is a free scorewriter for Windows, macOS, and Linux, comparable to Finale and Sibelius, supporting a wide variety of file formats and input methods.

It is released as free and open-source software under the GNU General Public License.

Linux (pronounced or, less frequently) is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open-source software development and distribution.

The defining component of Linux is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds.

The Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to describe the operating system, which has led to some controversy.

A scorewriter, or notation software or music notation processor, is software used with a computer for creating, editing and printing sheet music.

A scorewriter is to music notation what a word processor is to word text, in that they both allow fast corrections (undo), flexible editing, easy sharing of electronic documents (via the Internet or compact storage media), and clean, uniform layout.

In addition, most scorewriters, especially those from the 2000s, are able to sound out the notes using synthesizer instrument sounds or virtual instruments and record the notes (sound).

This playback and recording feature is especially useful for novice composers or music students or when no musicians (particularly the very costly full orchestra) are readily available or affordable.

The playback and recording features, by the same analogy, makes 2000s-era scorewriters equivalent to both word processors and previsualization software.

Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of music notation that uses modern musical symbols to indicate the pitches (melodies), rhythms and/or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece.

Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, Arabic or other languages – the medium of sheet music typically is paper (or, in earlier centuries, papyrus or parchment), although the access to musical notation since the 1980s has included the presentation of musical notation on computer screens and the development of scorewriter computer programs that can notate a song or piece electronically, and, in some cases, "play back" the notated music using a synthesizer or virtual instruments.

Microsoft Windows (or simply Windows) is a metafamily of graphical operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Microsoft.

It consists of several families of operating systems, each of which cater to a certain sector of the computing industry with the OS typically associated with IBM PC compatible architecture.

Active Windows families include Windows NT, Windows Embedded and Windows Phone; these may encompass subfamilies, e.g. Windows Embedded Compact (Windows CE) or Windows Server.

Defunct Windows families include Windows 9x; Windows 10 Mobile is an active product, unrelated to the defunct family Windows Mobile.