Some projects would use older version control systems like cvs. Others would manage development through email lists. Everyone was good at using the diff & patc

Some projects would use older version control systems like cvs. Others would manage development through email lists. Everyone was good at using the diff & patch commands. Mail clients like mutt were great at searching and sorting email. Releases would go up to FTP servers. In larger projects, there might have been multiple trees maintained. For example, get your patch into Andrew or Alan's tree before Linus would take it.