Q: Why quit programmes

Force quit is for hung applications. Don’t those happen on Vista?

If you mean just closing apps: "Why would you run them in the background?," is another way to ask that.

You can run all you like 24/7 at your discretion & see what you think yourself.

I don’t have a definitive answer, but:

Anybody that has been around since the days of older memory management & limited RAM is probably doing this out of habit. (Purely my opinion). I don’t leave the house with all the lights on, either, just because some day I may walk into that room again.

Preserving memory for what you really want to do includes things like XP & Vista too (I didn’t know anybody still used “Vista!” or much ever did. My impression was that it was a marginally better version of Windows ME, which was a horrid thing). Leaves me surprised at your question.

How much RAM do your tablets come with? It takes some time to switch applications.

The question is whether you would run your browser with many open tabs that take time to refresh in the background.

Why all these applications, many of whom run without online connection, should drop your server is unclear.

I do know people that never knew they still had every app they ever opened, running in the background of their phone or tablet.

what happens if we don't

Nothing. Other than they continue to occupy space in RAM another app could be using.

When I quit mail I often cannot get back on and have to re-establish my server?

That's a problem on the other end (the mail server you're connecting to). Though it's a bit hard to tell what you mean. Cannot back on to what? What do you mean "re-establish my server"?

From your hardware list, can I presume these questions are regarding the iPad?

Sometimes I get an exclamation mark by my AOL INBOX and have a problem getting on line again.

So the connection is dropping. It's hard to say what the actual cause is. It could be AOL's mail servers. It could be the ISP you connect to AOL through. It could be the Internet hub in your area, or the telephone line (for DSL or dial-up) or the cable company having an issue with their systems.