BTW: there is a perfect article about SharePoint 2010 Ribbon Control from its designer.
There is the way how to real hide it depending of current user permissions (owner permission in this example). Just add this to the head section on master page.
<style type="text/css">
div#s4-ribbonrow {
display:none;
}
</style>
<Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl runat="server"
Permissions="AddAndCustomizePages">
<style type="text/css">
div#s4-ribbonrow {
display:block;
}
</style>
</Sharepoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>