Mystery path ~/.dist/bin

[moon]

When I open a terminal and type "echo $PATH" (without quotes) one of the paths listed is /home/knoppix/.dist/bin. This directory did not exist on my default knoppix system so I went ahead and created one. This is a cool place to put my own scripts. I can run them without changing the default path and when I back up my home directory, the scripts get backed up. But I have a few questions about this path.

1. What does 'dist' stand for?
2. Why is it hidden?
3. Is there a 'traditional' use for this directory in linux? (I couldn't find anything useful with google)

Thanks,
Bill