I accidentally checked for systemd using aptitude on the wrong system.
There are actually a lot more systemd packages.

On Sat, Aug 15, 2015 at 08:58:46AM -0400, Hendrik Boom wrote:
> After a clean install of devuan from the alpha2 iso using a USB stick
> my system is running properly, with xfce and an unknown display manager.
> The only packages I asked to install were ones from dselect in the installer, and very few of those. Beyond the defaults, I asked
> for xfce.
>

There are still a few systemd-related packages iinstalled:

libpam-systemd
systemd
systemd-shim
libsystemd0

>
> Is this normal?
>
-- hendrik