I currently have a Windows machine, but would like to convert to Linux. One of my fears, though, is music. I own Cakewalk Home Studio and Finale and enjoy using these programs with my Roland Digital Piano to play and record MIDI files, etc. in a fairly powerful way.

Are there Linux apps out there that are superior to these? Or if not, can I use WINE to run them without horrible headaches and lost functionality?

Thanx for any insight into this. I know there are hundreds of Linux music apps out there, but I never see them evaluated against the popular commercial products (like you do for Open Office vs. MS Office).

yes there are soe products like cakewalk, if you go to linux.org and click applications then you can find the apps you are looking for there.