KDE doesn't require systemd. The KDE folks are still concerned about operating on the BSDs. Some of them are still concerned about running on Windows [0] and OS X [1].

Elias Probst:

"Reading the comments shows a lot of misconceptions about +Martin Gräßlin's proposal [to use systemd features to make Plasma startup under Wayland a little bit simpler]:

* KDE SC will still allow to use the old-way to startup a KDE session, as it will still ship the X11-way of doing it for [BSDs]. If you want to use a modern Wayland/systemd stack you're fine by using the defaults. If you don't want to: use the old X11/script startup stack.

* KDE SC won't enforce using systemd as init-system by this change. Instead, it will use parts of systemd which are completely independent from the init-system being used to handle the startup of the KDE session. If systemd is being used as an init-system, that's a plus because of some systemd integration effects, but that's all about it."

via: https://plus.google.com/+MartinGr%C3%A4%C3%9Flin/posts/GMtZr...

[0] http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-windows/2014-October/threa... [1] http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kde-mac/2014-October/thread.ht...