From a teacher's point of view of textbooks mentioned above, "Genki" is a good way to start learning sentence structures and grammar points.  You can practise all four macro skills (i.e. reading, writing, speaking & listening) within one text book. If you seek more practice, workbook is also available.  Negative side is, it can be difficult to do group/pair work yourself.  However, if you have a study buddy, you can start making a small conversation with him/her in Japanese as soon as chapter 3. 

"Minna no nihongo" is more focused on grammar points and covers them more than "Genki".  Thus, it is probably more friendly textbook to autodidacts.  However, all the explanations are in a separate book, so it may not be as convenient as "Genki".  Other workbooks are also available and if you collect all of the series, it would be quite bulky.  But, you can gain thorough knowledge from them for sure. 

Each textbook has pros and cons, so at the end it all depends on your learning style, purposes of learning and preferences. Good luck to you all with your studies and enjoy!   

I initially purchased Minna no NIhongo-    quickly returned it and got Genki.

I love using the Genki textbook.    I think for an absolute beginner of the Japanese language using

Minna no Nihongo would be very frustrating because there's  no English.    It's also a pretty boring looking

text and has no audio.    Besides having audio, Genki has a lot of exercises that really drill the material well. 

Good luck with your Japanese learning!