Let see , of course yes...Not only that your Data are safe when you're using OSX. No viruses , bonzibuddy , lame iHateYou viruses will rip your files apart. MacOS X boasts and prides itself when it comes to things like this. Oh , softwares....if you know where to find them , there are tons of them.

Hardware upgrades ?. Blah , actually you can do them. Doing so will void your warranty. Its a standard PC Motherboard , you can upgrade the processor , swap the RAM and even upgrade the Hard disk. I dont see whats wrong with it.

Standard 1 year , you can always extend it with 3 years Complete AppleCare

Well , do this...within its warranty period , dont upgrade...Leave it as it is , if you upgrade RAMs ,etc...please just make sure keep the original RAM ...just incase it needs to be RMA'ed

I have pimped my mac mini. Now i am saving up for 1GB of RAM for this mini and voila..its going to kick ass