This post is in hopes to stop the recent out break of the "what program should I use to compose music from..." posts. As we all know there have been many many threads on this forum (and just about any other forum that has a composer's section)on this subject. (And finding them is so simple I asked my 8 year old to look on this site for posts about Finale and after helping her spell finale she found many many.) But for those who haven't learnt how to search yet this is for you....
For the record , there are many programs available. The 2 that are the most common are Sibelius (Which you can learn more about at http://www.sibelius.com/ ) and Finale (Which you can learn about at http://www.finalemusic.com/ )

They both cost the same at about $600 (in U.S. funds.) You can use Virtual Drumline with both. They both support writing for percussion, as well as orchestra, concert band, jazz band, drum corps, marching band, and any other combination you can think of.
Both are used by many professional composers.
Note to high school and college students: Many high school and college music departments have either one or both of these programs installed on a computer that is accessable in the department that if you ask you can probably use.
I would suggest that you ask your band director (or if you are in college the music librarian)if they have a copy of one of them that you can have access to. (I work for a very small school district and we have asmall budget for music and we have both programs available for students to use.)

A question.. Are there other programs out there? Yes there is ..and for those who haven't learnt how to search the internet yet, to find them go to http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=music+notation+software&btnG=Google+Search

I hope that this helps all of those that have been recently looking for these programs..And I apologize in advance if I broke a site rule.

As I use both of the mentioned programs anyone who has any questions specific to operations on either feel free to contact me. (After you search to see if the answer is already on this site.)