Knopper wrote his own init system called "knoppix-autoconfig" according to DistroWatch. [0] That information is not included in the release notes, though.
[0] https://distrowatch.com/index-mobile.php?distribution=knoppi...
[0] https://distrowatch.com/index-mobile.php?distribution=knoppi...
From this German article[0]:
> Knoppix' Startvorgang läuft nach wie vor per Sys-V-Init mit wenigen Bash-Skripten, welche die Systemdienste effizient sequenziell oder parallel starten.
> Knoppix' boot sequence still uses Sys-V-Ini, with some bash scripts which start the system services efficiently sequential or in parallel.
So it has still all the downsides of sysvinit, except that might start sevices in a more efficient order or some in parallel.
[0]: https://www.golem.de/news/live-linux-knoppix-8-0-bringt-mode...