Randomness of Browsers

Randomness of Browsers
A Trivial and Unscientific finding.

So, I often wondered how random the PRNG (Pseudo Random Number Generators) are in popular browsers. So I set out to see for my self just how they differ, the results are mundane and boring... (Unless you're a nerd)

Details:
- The JS/HTML code used is located here.
- The test is run 5 times in every browser and the results are the mean of the tests. (No outliers are thrown away.)
- Same computer used for all the tests (it doesn't matter what computer was used).

Results:
Internet Explorer 6 - [0.49999, 0.49982, 0.49973, 0.49981, 0.50031] = 0.499932
Internet Explorer 7 - [0.49982, 0.49988, 0.50017, 0.50004, 0.49954] = 0.49989
Internet Explorer 8 - [0.50012, 0.50004, 0.50004, 0.50007, 0.49945] = 0.499944
FireFox 2.0.0.20 - [0.49945, 0.49964, 0.50018, 0.49996, 0.49964] = 0.499774
FireFox 3.5.2 - [0.50001, 0.49990, 0.49952, 0.50004, 0.50045] = 0.499974
FireFox 3.6a2 Alpha - [0.50039, 0.50070, 0.50053, 0.49917, 0.49998] = 0.500154
Opera 10 - [0.49981, 0.49973, 0.50007, 0.49956, 0.49979] = 0.499792
Chrome 4.0.206.1 - [0.50000, 0.50016, 0.49996, 0.50018, 0.49957] = 0.499974
Netscape 9.0.0.6 - [0.50007, 0.49992, 0.49991, 0.50029, 0.50042] = 0.500122

Final:
So, what does this all mean? Not much, just the fact that unless you're in need of very random numbers the general browser PRNG's will suit your needs.


adam@ashannon.us