On linux in order for chromium to access the serial ports, the user has to belong to the dialout group:
z ~$ ls -ld /dev/ttyACM0
crw-rw----. 1 root dialout 166, 0 Mar 2 14:55 /dev/ttyACM0
And at least in fedora that is not the default case. So, for the demo to work, need to add user to the dialout group:
sudo usermod -a -G dialout <username>
and then restart the session (my linux chops are not strong enough so i just reboot but i'm sure there is a more direct command to that effect; logging out and back in doesn't do it)
after which the demo works!