That would be 2k8 R2, IIRC. I don't have that particular version. I've got 2k5 and 2k8 fired up because that's what I have at work. Hopefully, we'll go straight to 2012 this year. That'll be fun!

I believe I'd rather use NEWID() as a random seed source because it works even with earlier versions of SQL Server. I still work with people that use versions as far back as 6.5 so I have to keep my hand practiced in the black arts of earlier versions as well as more current versions. Of course, someone would have to pry ROW_NUMBER() out of my cold dead hands should anyone try to take that away. 😀

As a bit of a sidebar, if you do the trick of creating a VIEW with SELECT NEWID() AS RandomSeed, you can even use it in an iTVF (inline Table Valued Function).