[agwa]

Yes, it's true.

To replace PID 1 with sysvinit, run:

  apt-get install sysvinit-core systemd-sysv-
  reboot

To prevent it from coming back, create the file /etc/apt/preferences.d/no-systemd.pref containing:

  Package: systemd-sysv
  Pin: origin *
  Pin-Priority: -1

This works great on servers and lightweight desktops. As others have noted, if you want GNOME you also need to install systemd-shim. I have no experience with this, but I have no reason to doubt that it works.