Oscillators (up to a few hundred MHz) and design methods

Hello,

I understand that Genesys is supposed to be pretty good to design oscillators/VCOs.
However, for an individual, it is quite expensive (S5k). Are there any other
design tools that are recommended?
How do other people design oscillators? So far I just use an old copy of multisim and
manually experiment with component values : ( before I prototype.
Was there ever a free limited version or something of Genesys? (when
it was produced by Eagleware?).

Thanks!

Genesys since was bought by Agilent don't have a limited version.

You can try LTspice which is freeware:
http://www.linear.com/designtools/software/#LTspice

or search the net for a version of Ansoft Designer SV (student version), which might be fine designing simple oscillators.